Dreams: Asylum
by Xtreme Nuisance
Summary: AU. Fromerly 'What If.' What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist? Part XI: Gaara and Temari posted. On Hold.
1. Characters

Summary: AU. What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist? When Haruno Sakura and fifteen others are taken in the span of nine years because they dream of each other, the others present in their dreams have to find a way to get them out without becoming discovered. Who is kidnapping them? And _why?_ Things aren't the way they seem in a world where hiding is necessary to save yourself. Part 1of 2 of the dream series sets up how everyone got there and Part 2 will be centered around their getting out. :-D

Disclaimer: I, in no way, shape, or form, own Naruto. It is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and whoever the hell was nice enough to put it on TV. I am in no way making monetary profit from this and am writing it for my own, and others', enjoyment. (I think I covered it all… XD) Profiles of main characters- listed in order of arrival.

Author's Notes: I deleted this story today and I am editing and reuploading it since I didn't like the flow of the other one. So... enjoy! I'll be posting the next chapter in a few minutes.

**Main**

Name: Haruno Sakura  
Age: 19

Name: Hatake Kakashi  
Age: 23

Name: Uchiha Sasuke  
Age: 19

Name: Ten Ten  
Age: 21

Name: Rock Lee  
Age: 21

Name: Umino Iruka  
Age: 22

Name: Uzumaki Naruto  
Age: 19

Name: Nara Shikamaru  
Age: 20

Name: Inuzuka Kiba  
Age: 19

Name: Akimichi Chouji  
Age: 19

Name: Yamanaka Ino  
Age: 19

Name: Shukaku Temari  
Age: 21

Name: Shukaku Gaara  
Age: 19

Name: Hyuuga Hinata  
Age: 19

Name: Aburame Shino  
Age: 19

Name: Hyuuga Neji  
Age: 21

Name: Yakushi Kabuto  
Age: 24

**Minor – no order (may have some appearance or other. Minor-major and just minor. :P)**

Name: Uchiha Itachi  
Age: 23

Name: Shukaku Kankurou  
Age: 22

Name: Sarutobi Asuma  
Age: 24

Name: Shiranui Genma  
Age: 24

Name: Yuuhi Kurenai  
Age: 23

Name: Mitarashi Anko  
Age: 24

Name: Tsunade  
Age: 35 (cause I said so)

Name: Jiraiya  
Age: er…. 39 (again, cause I said so)

Name: Orochimaru  
Age???

So… yeah. The minor characters… I don't know if they're all going to make an appearance or not, but I'm going to try. But they're all pretty much related (not, like, family) in some way. If that makes any sense. Okay, yeah. The story will make more sense once you start reading the first chapter. Right then. PEACE.

**Finished: January 31, 2006  
****Re-Published: July 31, 2007**


	2. Part I: Present

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like….a novel version of the manga. Just… from Sakura's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part I: Present**

Snapping her eyes open, the pink-haired girl popped up into a sitting position, her breath coming in gasps. Her bright, clover eyes quickly scanned the room, slowly taking in her surroundings. She paused when her eyes came to rest on an I.V. bag. Her eyes curiously followed the trail of the tube in the bag and down to her arm. When she spotted the needle that buried itself beneath the skin of her forearm, she groaned in frustration.

She began to slowly pick at the tape holding her I.V. in an attempt to pull it out without pain. While she did that, she glanced around the room again. When did she get injured? Better yet, when did the Konoha hospital get such nice rooms?

The girl shook herself out of her thoughts when she finally got the tape off. Reaching over to the box of tissue next to her bed, she pressed it to the I.V. and pulled the tube out of her abnormally pale arm with practiced ease. She peeked under the tissue and frowned when she was no blood. She must have been asleep for a while…

Shaking her head, she held the folded tissue in place and stood before walking over to the table where she saw her chart sitting. She rolled her eyes at the way it was just left there. Maybe they wanted her to read it. So she shrugged and opened the binder and blinked at her chart.

She wasn't in Konoha.

Momentarily forgetting about the tissue, she let go of it and held her chart with both hands, shock clear on her features. It seemed like she was in some sort of asylum (though she had her suspicions that it was an _insane_ asylum) and she has been for nine—going on ten—years! She collapsed onto the ground and stared at her birth date. If that and the latest date written were correct, then she was a nineteen-year-old girl. Not a fifteen-year-old medic-nin, but a nineteen year old… well… _nothing_.

Shaking her head again, she turned the page and stared at the names listed before her. It was _everybody_. The Rookie 9; Ten Ten, Neji and Rock Lee; the sand nins; Kakashi and Iruka…

Of course, she wasn't _completely _clueless as to what was going on. She remembered this place. She remembered how she got there. But she had always treated it as if it were a dream and her life as a kunoichi was the real deal. She glanced down at her arm. Now she wasn't so sure because they both _hurt_ like it was reality.

Grasping at the table, she pulled herself up to her feet and walked, with trouble, over to one of the smooth walls and stared at it blankly before absently running a hand across the smooth surface. It looked like glass. As if she were in an interrogation room. Shaking her head at the thought, she placed her hands against the glass in a cup-like shape and tried to peer inside the glass. Nothing. Groaning, she ran a hand through her short hair and grimaced when she felt how unclean it was.

She couldn't help but to jump and get into a defensive stance when she heard the door behind her open quietly. She squinted into the light of the hallways and glared when the man stepped into her line of sight. With the long silver hair pulled back into a ponytail and the round glasses that glinted under the fluorescent light, she recognized him immediately.

"Ah. You're awake," he said with a smile.

She studied him, suspicion clear on her face, before she responded. "…Yeah. You're new, aren't you?" When she got no response, she began to fire off questions at the top of her head. "Why am I in this room? It wasn't my room before." Then she pointed to her chart. "And why did you find everyone just to lock them up?!"

"You, Haruno-san, are in this room because you began to get bruises a few days ago. What, may I ask, were you dreaming about?"

She paused for a minute before answering. "I was… training."

"For what?"

Instead of giving him a verbal answer, she glared at him with a scowl on her face and pushed herself off of the wall a little bit. "Why do you care? So you can stick more of my friends in here?"

Instead of answering her question, he grabbed gauze and tape and made his way over to her. She pressed herself back against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut when he reached out toward her. When she felt him gently grab her arm and begin rubbing at her arm, she blushed and opened her eyes. She had been bleeding and didn't notice, so he was making a makeshift band-aid for the place where the I.V. had been in her arm. He then stood and walked to the door before pausing. "Come on. It's time for you to meet the others again."

She blinked before nodding and standing up shakily and leaning heavily against the wall. "Kabuto-san, I can't walk very well right now."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "How did you know my name?"

She blinked and tilted her head, trying to come up with an excuse. If they went out and found people in her dreams, she didn't want them to get Kabuto. She didn't know him in _this _reality and he seemed much different than the Kabuto she remembered. When she caught sight of his jacket, she smiled. "It's on your jacket." She then looked down, embarrassed. "Er… could you get someone to help me?"

He paused as if in thought. "I can't very well _take_ you in there… Someone would attack me as soon as I step into the room." He chanced a glance at her. "You can roll yourself in a wheelchair, right?"

Confused by his kindness, she nodded. "… I can try."

* * *

Bored. Bored. Bored. _Bored._

Kakashi leaned back on his bed, his legs lazily spread across it. And, man, was he _bored_. But then again, it's not like there was much to do. Eat, sleep, eat some more, sleep, and stare at the wall… Yeah, they most definitely didn't give him much to do. It has been the same routine for about five years (was it really five years all ready? It didn't seem like it…) and he was getting kind of tired of it. Not even a book was available to read. Sure they got up every month, went to a room, and talked to a bunch of other kids, all of hem in their late teens or early twenties, but that didn't make him any less _bored_!

Before the dreaded B-word could slip out from his mouth instead of repeating itself inside of his brain, the door opened. He turned his head in a lazy fashion, scratching at his five o'clock shadow. to the door as it opened, scratching at his five o'clock shadow. Two (rather large, might he add) men stepped in the room and proceeded to attempt to drag him out.

"Hm… You _do_ know I can walk on my own, right?" he sighed. "I mean, come on, guys. We go through this every time."

The two just seemed to share a look with one another and tightened their hold on his arms. And who could really blame them? Kakashi sure as hell couldn't. Every time they dropped their guard around him before, he somehow managed to escape. Really, he couldn't help but to think that his ability to get out of sticky situations was the only thing those dreams were good for. Otherwise, as far as he was concerned, they pretty much just ruined his life by getting him stuck in an insane asylum, of all things.

Kakashi was then broken out of his thoughts when they threw him into the room, and he hit the floor hard. Sighing heavily, he slowly stood and brushed the non-existent dirt off of his white pants and shirt. When he was done, he looked up to examine the people in the room. He sighed again when he saw that the pink-haired girl was, once again, not present. Instead, there was a boy with long brown hair and angry white eyes sitting next to shy Hinata.

Hyuuga Neji.

Everyone else was lounging around the room doing various things, varying between playing cards or talking quietly to one another. Not bothering to greet anyone, he flopped down onto an empty couch, his hands linked behind his head in a relaxed manner. He blew at his bangs that fell into his face and closed his eyes in thought. Maybe one of the doctors would actually give him a haircut.

Snorting at the thought, he opened his eyes and stared ahead at the door. He tilted his head curiously when the door opened and stayed wide open for a few seconds. He sat up on the couch when a flash of pink caught his eye, and his eyes lingered on the doorway as a pink-haired girl in a wheelchair wheeled herself slowly into the room. Once she was all of the way in and the door closed, Kakashi stood and made his way over to her. When he got there, he smiled down at her.

"Sakura."

She looked up at him and shot him a weak smile. He scanned her face and saw that her long hair had, once again, been cut short. Running a hand through his hair, he sat up.

"Kakashi-sen…"

He sighed good-naturedly and began to push her toward the table where Naruto and Sasuke were sitting. "Just Kakashi, Sakura. Remember? I thought we agreed on that years ago."

He watched her smile up at him sheepishly. "Oh… Sorry… Uhm…" she paused and thought before blushing in embarrassment. "Kakashi-kun, when was the last time I was at one of these?"

He paused in his pushing before he continued to move again. "Actually, you were always here, just… half-asleep most of the time."

She nodded and their conversation was broken off with a loud "Sakura-chan!"

Her eyes widened as a tall blonde-haired teen hopped out of his chair and stopped in front of her, a sad smile on his face as he peered at her. His blue eyes darted around her face as if he were searching for something. "Are… are you all right?"

Seeing her teammate absent of his usual foxy smile shook her a bit, so Sakura just nodded and forced a smile on her face. Her eyes darted around the room once more and her eyes focused on the seven new faces in the room.

The first one her eyes focused on were Shikamaru, only to find him staring right back at her. She then looked up at Kakashi (who, she couldn't help but to notice wasn't wearing his mask and had gotten rather handsome since the last time she saw him). "Kakashi, when was the last time I was awake?"

He shot her a look and sighed. "Just before Shikamaru came was the last time you were fully awake. So… no more than three years ago…" He scratched the back of his neck and looked up at the ceiling. "It seemed a lot more boring than that, actually."

She nodded scanned the room and took notice of the newer faces: Chouji, though it seemed that he was slowly loosing his weight from being there; Ino, her blonde hair tied up in a bun, her blue eyes dull; Temari, who was talking to the other blonde girl and her brother quietly and the smirk usually present was gone; Gaara, who she found looked even paler (if that was possible) without the skin around his eyes looking so dark—and actually had _eyebrows_; Hinata, who looked more tired than timid; Neji, Hinata's cousin, who didn't look as worn as the others did (she figured he was most likely the newest addition to the group) and was looking back at her; and finally, Shino, who was talking to Hinata and Neji, though to her it looked like he wasn't looking in any particular direction at all.

"Ah…" She turned her attention back to Neji to find him still looking at her, his eyebrows furrowed over his eyes in thought. "Haruno-san…"

"… You can call me Sakura-chan, Neji-san."

There was a moment of silence and he nodded. "… Sakura-chan, exactly how long have you been here?"

She paused as she tried to remember the numbers on the paper. She shot a look at Kakashi, and he held up nine fingers for her to see. "Nine years."

**End Part I**

* * *

**Next chapter: Part II: Year 1- Haruno Sakura **

All righty then. End part 1! This is the rewritten and what I would like to think of as better version. Whether or not there will be couples will not be decided until after chapters 8 or 9. It's more like whatever happens, happens kind of thing because there might not even be couples. OH, and I mostly only cover up to the chuunin exams in memories for a reason, so yeah. Reviews will be appreciated. :-D  
**  
Finished: January 6, 2006**  
**Edited: July 31, 2007  
****Published: July 31, 2007**


	3. Part II: Year 1, Haruno Sakura

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like….a novel version of the manga. Just… from Sakura's POV.

_Italics_- dreams  
**Bold**- inner sakura

* * *

**Part II: Year 1**

**Haruno Sakura**

Ten-year-old Sakura sighed when she stepped into her room and twisted some of her long, dark hair around her finger in thought. She really hated school. She was a _great_ student, but it was just… it was just her stupid forehead! That day, she had pushed her bangs back with a headband (she hated headbands, but her mom made her do it!) and it just gave the other kids something to laugh about. Stopping her train of thought, she stared at her desk.

'**Shannaro! We're smarter than them all and they're just jealous!'**

Sakura nodded to herself, suddenly determined, and didn't think anything else of the extra voice in her head as she sat down at the desk in her room. Inner Sakura had been a regular occurrence since her weird dreams started happening weeks ago. Placing her bag down next to her desk, she pulled out a pencil and her homework and stared dumbly at the math problems in front of her.

As she was staring at the worksheet, one thought hit her hard: fifth grade _sucked_. It wasn't like the work was hard or anything. She was beyond capable of doing it and had even managed to get one of the higher, if not the highest, grades in the class most, if not all, of the time. But, even _she_ had to say that passing math class wasn't the easiest task since her teacher didn't seem to know what in the world it was that he was teaching.

No, it definitely wasn't the classes she hated. She hated the fifth grade because she was friendless. At first, her parents told her that it was expected since she was the new girl. But it has been two months since she transferred! Two months of having no friends… she wasn't used to that. Everyone in her class either ignored her or made fun of her "abnormally large"—though she thought it was quite a normal size—forehead.

Pushing the disheartening thoughts to the back of her mind, she let her mind drift off as she looked back down at her math worksheet. She stared blankly at it for a few minutes before she yawned as exhaustion suddenly overtook her senses. Shaking her head to clear the sleepy fog, she pulled out her math textbook and opened it to whatever it was they had studied in class that day. Or were supposed to be studying.

When she couldn't focus on it, she blinked again as her vision quickly became blurry. Before she could even comprehend what she was doing and stop herself, she placed her head on her desk and let sleep take over.

* * *

_Twelve-year-old Haruno Sakura watched in horror as Momochi Zabuza captured her sensei in what looked like a big ball of water. He was smirking. Or at least… she thought he was smirking. Before she knew it a clone of the man appeared before her and her teammates, looking ready to attack. Fear took over her senses and her grip tightened on her kunai in an attempt to control it. She blinked when she realized that he was talking and tried to focus on what it was he was saying._

"… _A real ninja is someone that has survived numerous brushes with death."_

_Her eyes widened at his words. What would stop him from killing a few genin? He was a criminal! She began to shake more when his words sunk in. She blinked and it was as if he disappeared and reappeared in front of Naruto, kicking him back. Her senses seemed to go haywire as she watched the hyperactive ninja go flying back, the forehead protector he worked so hard for flying from his head. _

"_Naruto!" she shouted. It wasn't like she actually _liked_ the boy, but she didn't want him to end up killed by some missing nin!_

_In her panic, she looked over to Kakashi and wasn't comforted when she saw the panicked look that appeared on his face as he shouted for them to leave him there. Seeing movement from Naruto out of the corner of her eye, her attention shifted back to him as he stood. He seemed… he seemed to make his mind up about something. And then he charged at the jounin-clone. _

'_**Is he suicidal?'**_

"_Naruto! What are you thinking?!" she shouted at his retreating back, her panic and fear turning into a frightening mix. She couldn't help but to watch in horror as the man, once again, kicked Naruto back to the small group of three. "We Genin have no chance against someone like him! What were you thinking, jumping in all by yourself?!"_

_She watched him stand up and her eyes caught sight of something black in his hand. 'The forehead protector…' She thought in shock. 'That's what he wanted? _

_The boy managed to stand tall, though his head was bowed low. "Hey… you eyebrow-less freak… put this in your handbook. The man who will one day become Hokage… Uzumaki Naruto!"_

_With a slight nod, Sakura put her complete focus into what she was supposed to do: watch Tazuna and keep him safe. Through the simple of action of getting his forehead protector, Naruto—her annoying, blonde-haired, hyperactive ninja teammate—had given her hope. She tightened her grip on her kunai in determination and pushed her fear and anxiety into a dust-covered place in the back of her mind. _

'_**Yeah! Let's do this!'**_

_Nodding to herself with a small smile on her face, she pushed inner Sakura—and the flush that had somehow appeared on her face—away.._

"_Sasuke, lend me your ear," Naruto said._

_She didn't even turn to look at Sasuke as he began to speak. "What is it?"_

"_I have a plan."_

"_Pfft. Teamwork from you?"_

_She felt her small smile become slightly larger as Naruto turned his head slightly to look at them, a determined smile on his face. "Now… let's get wild."_

* * *

Snapping up from her desk, Sakura ran her hand across her face to wipe the sweat from it. She looked around her room frantically and quickly took notice of the bright blue walls of her bedroom and relaxed slightly. Shaking her head slightly, as if the action could get rid of the dream that she had, she reached up a hand and began pulling at her brown-black **(1)** hair with one hand. Then, picking up her pencil, she stared blankly down at her homework like she had before she fell asleep. It was one of those moments where she wished that she really _were_ a ninja.

Sighing loudly to herself, Sakura put her pencil down in the crevice of her book and sat with her head in her hands. Slowly, her hands grasped her hair into her tiny fists. It didn't make any sense. Her dreams were becoming more and more _real. _When they were standing in front of Zabuza, she could smell the trees, the grass, and the water that her sensei was trapped in. She could taste the dust in the air and feel the mist settle on her skin. Shaking her head, she let go of her hair and buried her palms into her eyes and counted to ten.

Relaxing, she opened her eyes and picked up her pencil. She began twirling it idly in her hands before she stopped and then attempted to balance it on her nose. Sakura blinked and her eyes brightened as if she came to some sort of decision. She looked at her pencil and tilted her head in thought. She balanced the pencil on her nose againicking up her pencil, she balanced it carefully on her nose. Making a decision, she made one end represent telling her mother of her dreams that were slowly mixing with reality and the other represent whether she should keep it all to herself. The first end that hit the desktop would be the one that she would do. She watched as the pencil fell with a dull clunk and nodded to herself while biting her lip.

The decision was made.

* * *

Sakura grasped her mother's hand tightly as she sat in front of the big mahogany desk. Swinging her short legs slightly, she looked around the office once again, bored out of her mind as they waited. The office was light beige in color, plaques handing on the walls all over the room.

Getting sick of staring at the (rather boring, she thought) walls, she fingered strands of her hair and held some up, staring blankly at them. It had been a few weeks since she's told her mother of her dreams. _She_ said that they were possibly just nightmares. And then her hair had turned a light, cherry blossom pink, just like her dreams. Sakura's mother had thought that she wanted _attention _(**'Yeah, right, lady!'**) and had done it herself, making Sakura seem crazy when she insisted that it just changed by itself.

At that thought, Sakura quickly let go of her mother's and pulled away, deciding that it was a better idea to sit on her hands. She bit her lip and snapped around in her seat when she noticed a dark-haired man enter the room. Her eyes followed his every movement as he came around the desk and sat down in front of the two females.

He was what her mother would call a handsome man. But Sakura thought that there was something… _strange. _About him. His dark brown eyes seemed to glint eerily in the light and she vaguely wondered if her mother noticed it as well. Shaking her head to clear those thoughts (Sakura didn't want to start thinking that she was crazy. She _knew_ she wasn't crazy!), she stared blankly at the CLINIC logo on his clean, white jacket.

When he opened his mouth to talk, Sakura decided that she didn't like his voice either. It was like there was something _evil _about him. So she, instead, decided to ignore everything in the room. When he finished talking to her parents, she looked up and proceeded to begin her polite little girl act and smiled shyly up at the man. Sakura stood and followed the man out of the room. Maybe if she was a good girl, her parents would forget about it and let her go home with them.

_Just maybe… _

**End Part II**

* * *

**Next chapter: Part III: Year 4- Hatake Kakashi**

**(1)-** I couldn't think of a hair color. So I figured brown-black just cause. I mean… it's the real world. Who in the hell has pink hair (people DO have silver at a young age though. It's, like, some genetic thing or… something. I've heard it SOMEWHERE!).

**Author's Notes: **Short chapter and I apologize. So… yeah. This is the edited version! Word closed while I was typing it. AH. So yeah. Couples are a possibility. Just because when I was writing it, that's the way it was happening. D I'm going out of town next Tuesday (going to Puerto Rico!) and I'm taking my laptop and everything…. But I don't know if there will be Internet connection. And I'm trying to finish this before school starts because college classes are going to suck. And I didn't feel like editing the edited, so sorry for anything repeated. :-D

**Finished: January 20, 2006  
****Edited: July 31, 2007  
****Published: July 31, 2007**


	4. Part III: Year 4, Hatake Kakashi

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like….a novel version of the manga. Just… from Kakashi's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part III: Year 4 **

**Hatake Kakashi**

Groaning quietly, Kakashi trudged into the classroom, sat down at his desk and stuffed his head in his arms. He managed to lay there in silence for a few minutes before a familiar voice made his best friend's presence known.

"What is _this_? Hatake Kakashi is _on time_? Heck—_early?_"

Kakashi pulled his head up from the temporary pillow that his arms made and glared up at him, his dark eyes flashing. "Shut up, Uchiha."

The black-haired, onyx-eyed boy shook his head and sat down next to the silver haired seventeen-year-old. "But seriously, what are you doing here? You're _never_ on time."

Kakashi sighed and put his head back down. "My mom kicked me out. Too tired to argue."

Itachi snorted and leaned back in his seat. "Hatake, you sure have been getting enough sleep? You've been exhausted. Even if you _have_ been late beyond all reasonable explanation."

Kakashi scrunched up his nose in a sign of distaste. "Of course there's an explanation. I've been…"

"… Taking a walk on the road of life," Itachi finished. He then smirked at his friend. "It's an explanation, just not a very reasonable one."

"Tch… whatever." He turned his head back over to Itachi, his head rested on one hand. After a rather long moment of silence, Kakashi spoke. "I haven't been getting much sleep because of these weird dreams I've been having."

"Eh?" Itachi looked startled out of their comfortable silence. "Dreams? Did you, like… I don't know, talk to anyone? They seem to be bothering you."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "I'm talking to you, aren't I? …Idiot." He the shook his head and yawned. "Sorry. But seriously, thought… I told the guidance counselor and he said I was seeking attention and needed to get back to class."

"Oh. So what happens in these… _dreams_?"

Kakashi scowled at his friend. "You don't believe me either, do you?"

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Dude, you sound gay. Just tell me."

Kakashi groaned and ran a hand through his silver hair. "Fine. I've been having them for _months_. And it's weird because they've been getting even more real every time I have one. And it just _continues _like a story. I can feel pain and… and sometimes I wake up spitting _blood_ of all things cause I got hit in a _dream._" He shook his head. "I know this sounds ridiculous, but… I don't know, it's just weird."

Itachi seemed to sit in thought for a moment before something akin to recognition flitted across his features. "Kakashi, there was this little girl a couple of years ago… She lived down the street from Touya's girlfriend. She said the kid claimed to have dreams like yours…" He paused for another moment longer before continuing. "I don't think that you should tell anyone else."

Kakashi blinked. "Why the hell not? And don't you dare say you think I'm crazy."

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Fine, I won't say it. But it's mostly because as soon as she told, her family admitted her to some asylum or something. They were kind of upset because they never saw her again."

Kakashi just snorted. "That sounds like a really bad horror story. You know… Itachi… you shouldn't listen to everything you hear…" In a lazy fashion, he put his head back in the pillow of his arms. "Just… let me get a little bit of sleep…"

With a quiet yawn, Kakashi was dreaming.

* * *

"HOLY—!" With a gasp, Kakashi shot up from his seat and stared down at his hands, horrified, his eyes dull and unfocused. He blinked rapidly and looked around the classroom to see a majority of his classmates chuckling and Itachi burying his head into one of hands, embarrassed for his friend. He looked back down at his hands and turned them over, as if amazed

"Hatake-san?"

He ignored his teacher and just continued to stare down with a blank expression. He had killed a boy… It was the first time anything like _that _had happened in his dreams… He had been trying to kill that… that eyebrow less _monster_… He didn't… "I… I… I didn't mean it…" He muttered quietly, making the few people who heard them raise an eyebrow in question.

"Hatake-san… Are you all right?"

Kakashi snapped out of his daze and his hands began to shake uncontrollably. In an attempt to hide the sudden shaking, he reached up and ran a hand through his hair, just to miss his hair and brush air. Nothing fazed him much but… it was just so _real_. He could still feel the blood on his face and hands…

"I… I… I have to get out of here."

He shoved his chair back hastily and stood. Not even bothering to gather his things, he wove his way through the desks while ignoring his teacher's calls and fled from the room full of confused classmates.

The cool-headed Hatake Kakashi had officially cracked.

* * *

"You don't understand! He… he just appeared out of no where! And I _killed _him. A fucking _kid, _Rin!"

"_Hatake-san, calm down."_

Kakashi clutched the phone to his ear and paused in his pacing. "The hell…? Calm down? Are you serious? How in the hell…? I can't! That was… and he… he didn't even…!"

"_Kakashi! Will you just… chill?"_

Kakashi sighed. His shaking had long since stopped, but now he was trying to figure out the dreams. _Why_ was this happening to him? And then it's not like Rin was helping much… Whenever he woke up from a dream, he called her in an attempt to reassure himself that she was still alive. "Look, Rin-chan, I've got to go and… and calm down or something. I'll talk to you later."

Without another word, Kakashi slammed the phone down in its cradle and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Sitting down on his bed, he closed his eyes and let himself calm down, his head in his hands with his elbows braced on his knees. He hadn't stopped pacing since he got home from class that morning. Then he had finally decided to call his confidant—Rin, his friend from childhood who had moved when they were younger. Never mind the fact that it was nearly lunchtime…

Shaking his head and deciding that a walk and some food would do him some good, Kakashi grabbed his wallet and made for the door. He paused with his hand on the doorknob when a sound from the first floor of his house came to his attention.

Footsteps…?

It couldn't be his parents. His father was out of town and, hell, his mother wore high heeled shoes all of the time, even in the house. He didn't get_ why _she liked them so much, but he figured if she wanted to chance breaking her ankle, it was none of his concern. The woman took more care of his shoes than him most of the time. But he loved her. She _was _his mom, after all.

Shaking the random thought from his head, he held his breath and listened again to be sure his ears weren't deceiving him. _Definitely _footsteps. Narrowing his tired eyes, he quietly locked the door to his room, and grabbed the phone. When he looked down at it, he cursed when he realized that the phone didn't work. A quick look at his alarm clock (the one he never really used) told him that the power was out.

Cursing some more under his breath, he slowly turned and made his way toward the window, his footsteps as light as a feather. Quietly, like he had done so many nights as a year one high school student, he opened his window and looked out. Seeing no one, he stretched one long leg out onto a branch of the tree that was so _conveniently_ next to his window and pulled his other one after him before slowly making his way down the tree.

Cursing himself for not being able to do the things he could do in his dreams, he paused. Looking down, he decided to take a peek into the kitchen window from above. His blood froze when he realized it wasn't such a good idea: a head covered in a skull cap and eyes covered with sunglasses staring right back at him.

Throwing all caution into the wind, he let himself fall the rest of the way down the tree and landed on his back, the air instantly knocked out of him. Gasping for breath and ignoring the black and the stars that seemed to take over his vision, he blindly stood and made his way away from where he knew the back door attached to the kitchen was.

Blinking rapidly, he managed to clear his vision enough to see the tall wooden fence in his backyard. Reaching up, he grabbed the top of the fence and began to pull himself half over the ridiculously large fence. (He _told_ his mom that no one cared what they were eating for dinner, but _no._) Kakashi felt his school jacket catch on a loose nail and rip as his ankles were grabbed and he was pulled roughly back into his yard. He grit his teeth when his chin slammed into the top of the fence with the force of the pull and he fell backwards until his head hit the soft grass. He turned on his side and spat up blood. He had bit a hole in his tongue when he hit the fence.He managed to stand again and turned and tackled the rather large man to the ground. It was all in vain when he felt someone hit a pressure point in his neck.

And then his world went black.

* * *

_Eerily aware of his surroundings, Kakashi peered at the boy who was currently attached to his arm by the hole he had put in his gut. _

_He was dead._

_His mismatched eyes shot to Zabuza and widened when he saw the man lift his sword high above his head, his intention clear._

'_He's going to cut through the both of us!'_

_Kakashi jumped back as the large man swung his sword down and ignored the crash that resounded as it hit the ground. Turning, he placed the dead boy down and pulled his hand out of his middle with a disturbing and bloodly 'splash.' Kakashi blinked and stared down at Haku, studying his feminine features quickly before running his hands down the boy's eyelids, closing his eyes with that action. He faintly registered Zabuza laughing insanely somewhere behind him. Kakashi took that moment to chance a glance at the twelve-year-old blonde staring at the bloody scene in disbelief. _

"_Naruto, stay there… This is my fight!"_

_Kakashi glared up at Zabuza as the man's large form came charging at him and he couldn't help but to once again marvel silently at how well the man could move while holding that large sword. Shaking the thought away, he braced himself and waited for the missing-nin to get closer before he could make his move. He seemed to be resolute in what he was about to do. As soon as Zabuza got close enough, Kakashi sent out a kick that hit him directly in the gut, sending Zabuza back and knocking the air completely out of him._

* * *

Awake, Kakashi winced and brushed a hand at his bruised chin and slowly sat up in his bed while opening his eyes at the same time. He blinked rapidly to clear his vision of any of the sleep as visions of what happened slowly came to him. He scowled and looked around the room. From the looks of it, he, Hatake Kakashi, was _kidnapped. _How fucking ridiculous was that?!

He was startled out of his thoughts when the door began to open. He glared hard at it as it opened to reveal a dark-haired, dark-eyed doctor standing in the doorway.

Enraged, he rose from the bed, shot across the room, and grabbed the doctor's clean, white lab coat. "What the… Where the _fuck_ am I, you prick?" The man just peered at Kakashi, making his fury rise even more. Before either could say a world, two men came from seemingly nowhere and grabbed Kakashi roughly by the elbows, dragging him back to his bed. "What the _hell_? I want some answers, damn it! Why am I here?!"

Thrashing around, he managed to get his arm free from one of the men and let it crash into the side of the other one's head. Startled, the other man let go of him as well and Kakashi took the chance to run toward the now empty doorway. He scowled and quickly decided to turn left, trusting his instincts.

Before he could get very far, three more men appeared before him and two grabbed his arms, only managing to make his rage rise. He didn't want to _be_ there. He didn't _ask_ to get kidnapped. So what was so important about him that they so desperately needed to keep inside of this… this _place_? The place looked suspiciously like an insane asylum. Before he could make a move to hit any of them, he was sent to the ground and held there. Scowling, he began to kick in a desperate attempt to catch one of them _somewhere_. He heard one of his feet connect to the third one in the face when the man turned around to tell him something (to be still, no doubt).

When the man reached out to grab his legs, Kakashi kicked out at his face again and was satiated when he heard the man's nose make a satisfying 'crunch.' The man screamed out and grasped at his nose before he was berated by one of the two men holding his arms. The injured man (Kakashi decided to call him "broken nose") reached out again and finally caught Kakashi's kicking leg. He continued to struggle when the men held him down on the ground and a nurse seemed to appear at the end of the hallway, a needle in her hand. He continued to wiggle as much as he could when she, with a surprising amount of strength, forced his right shoulder into the ground and jabbed the needle into his arm. He cursed himself as he—once again—fell into unconsciousness.

"Hey! What can a guy do to get some food around here! Do You people hate me that much?" Kakashi shouted out at the empty room, lounging comfortably on the couch.

It had been about a week since Kakashi had been there and they had insisted on coming into his room to give him food and necessities while he was asleep because of his escape attempt. Even when he was asleep, they strapped him down in case he woke up while they were in the room with him. Though… ever since Kakashi got to that place, he tried _not_ to sleep. He was getting sick of those dreams and the feelings of distress they gave him—but apparently not his dream self. Never mind the fact that he simply didn't trust the people that kidnapped him. That would just be pure stupidity to trust them.

Now, they had dragged him out of his room and stuck him inside of some sort of… lounge. It had couches, chairs, tables… even _board games_ of all things. They were stacked neatly on a shelf that was bolted to the ground in the corner. He knew because the first thing he tried to do was move it. Maybe he could have thrown it at the door or something.

Yeah… right.

He was startled out of his thoughts when the door began to slowly open. He threw his legs over the side of the couch and stood with caution, ready to run out the door at any given chance. Instead of the usual doctor or some sort of adult walking into the room, Kakashi was startled when a young girl timidly made her way into the room. She was probably about in her early teens, even though she was rather frail. But the thing that shocked Kakashi the most about the girl was the familiar shocking green eyes and the vibrant pink hair that was pulled back into a bun at the base of her neck.

"… Sakura?"

She smiled and blushed up at him, staring openly up at his face. "Kakashi-sensei!"

Before he could even respond, she launched herself at him, her arms winding around his neck tightly as if she were afraid that he would disappear like a dream.

"Ah… Sakura-san…"

She blushed scarlet and separated herself from him quickly and bowed. "Ah! Gomen nasai, but... but… you're the first person that I've known… well, sort of known… since I've gotten here."

He blinked. "_You're_ that little girl who had the dreams?"

She looked up and nodded. "Uhm… About three years ago, I think. I'm thirteen now. Not twelve like in my dream. And _you_ look pretty normal under that mask, huh?"

'**And cute!!'**

For once, Sakura had to agree with her inner self. Although Kakashi had a bruise forming on his chin, his skin gave off a healthy color on its own. She noticed that, just like dream-Kakashi, this Kakashi also had a scar over his left eye. When mentally comparing the two, she noticed that right eye was the same dark shade of the one that she was used to seeing, emotion seem clearly. The left one was a lighter shade, seemingly dead to the world. _A glass eye. _Her eyes trailed down his narrow chin and slightly pink lips; everything below his nose was covered in smooth skin (all theories about Kakashi's face made by Team 7 have been disproved!). She figured that wherever he lived, he must've had a fan club much like Sasuke's in Konoha.

Choking down a snort, she smiled up at him (he was still way taller than her).

He chuckled a little at the younger girl. "Yeah. I'm Hatake Kakashi. Seventeen-years-old." He paused and felt a little awkward just standing there. "Hey… do you think you can tell me where the hell I am?" He then winced. "Sorry. I shouldn't be cursing. You're only thirteen."

She smiled and sat down at a chair that was at the table next to them. "It's okay, Kakashi-sensei. Technically, in the dream I was 14 before it started over." She shrugged. "Anyways, this is the CLINIC. I have no idea what it means… probably something stupid… maybe nothing at all…"

He looked up at the ceiling in thought. "The CLINIC… So you've been here for…?"

"This is going on my fourth year." She leaned against him and studied him. "I've never seen you here before this, anyway. When'd you get here?" She asked excitedly, green eyes sparkling with her mood.

"Er… about a week."

"So when did you start having the dreams?"

He sighed and shook his head before focusing back on her. "Months ago. I lost count, actually."

"Oh… oh! That's when my dreams started over! One day I was on a mission by myself and the next day it started over and I was twelve, back in the academy." She tilted her head. "You know, it gets weird seeing the same fights every time and knowing what the turnout will be… knowing I can't change it…" She rubbed a fist across her eyes. "Gomen. I think it's my fault that you're here." Wiping her eyes, the younger teen smiled at him. "Arigato, Kakashi-sensei."

He gazed at her before looking up at the ceiling again. "No problem, Sakura-san… no problem." He thought for a second before looking back at her. "And… you don't have to call me Kakashi-sensei. We're practically equals now."

The smile that appeared on Sakura's face was enough to brighten anyone's mood. "All right… Kakashi."

**End Part III**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Part IV: Year 5- Uchiha Sasuke**

**Author's Notes:** Hm… so a friendship begins! I'd like to think I made Kakashi seem more… human? Less of an I-can-be-a-cold-blooded-killer-when-I-wanna-and-will-always-protect-my-teammates-no-matter-what Kakashi. XD Right. So… Review please. I won't accept flames, but I DO accept constructive criticism. And just so everyone knows: this chapter is almost a complete rewrite. I added and deleted so much stuff that it almost makes me sad. :-D OH. And if anything seems to be missing, tell me, because I saved what I edited on the ff. net editor and then some stuff disappeared.

**Finished: January 9, 2006  
****Edited: August 1, 2007  
****Published: August 1, 2007**


	5. Part IV: Year 5, Uchiha Sasuke

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like... a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part IV: Year 5**

**Uchiha Sasuke**

Stifling a yawn, the boy wove a pale hand through his dark, raven locks. He closed his coal colored eyes and blinked them open again before he could fall asleep standing up. Stepping into his house, he dropped his bag full of soccer equipment and a bag full of books next to the door in a daze (his mother won't like that), he yawned and slipped off his shoes at the same time. Stepping into some house slippers, he made his way into the den where his brother undoubtedly was.

And he was right.

Sasuke flopped down on the chair next to the couch and watched Itachi watch T.V. Before he could stop it, another yawn escaped, He winced when he noticed how loud it was over the volume of the T.V. Smiling sheepishly, he waved a tired hand at his brother. "Hey."

The eighteen-year-old hogging the couch raised an eyebrow, his eyes focused on his brother in mild amusement. "Tired, little brother?"

The fourteen-year-old scowled before slouching in the chair and yawning again. "What gave you that idea?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Sasuke watched as a smirk began to slowly form on Itachi's face. "You should have gone to sleep early last night. Like I told you to. Now… can I say I told you so?"

Sasuke scowled and threw a pillow at his brother.

"Sasuke! What did I tell you about throwing the pillows! They stay on the furniture!"

The two paused and shot a look of disbelief at the closed door that led to the kitchen. Sasuke looked back to his brother, his disbelief still clear in his eyes. "How does she _do_ that?"

Itachi blinked and looked at Sasuke before he shrugged. "… Must be a mom thing. That's the only explanation."

"… Right." With that response, Sasuke slouched as far into the cushions of the chair as he could go. There was a moment of silence between the two brothers before Sasuke felt something soft hit his stomach. He opened his eyes and sat straight just to see a pillow fall off his lap and hit the ground. He glared over at his brother just to see him smirking. "Yeah. And yet she never catches _you_."

When Sasuke snatched the pillow off the floor and tucked the pillow behind his head, Itachi's smirk turned into a frown. When Sasuke's eyes closed, he took the chance to study his little brother. He looked worse than tired—he looked _exhausted._ Dark bags were under his eyes and he even looked paler than usual. Itachi tilted his head and studied Sasuke for a little while longer before he spoke again. "… Why are you always so tired?"

Sasuke's dark eyes snapped open again and focused on the serious look in his older brother's eyes. Not only was Itachi serious, he looked—dare Sasuke even _think_ of saying it—worried. Shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts, Sasuke sat up, set an elbow on the armrest, and sat his head on one of his palms. "… I haven't been getting much sleep." Blinking slowly, he scowled and looked away from Itachi, the hand on his lap clenching into a fist. "Aniki… I've been having these… dreams."

Itachi's eyes narrowed in what seemed to be… suspicion? "What kind of dreams?"

Eyes snapping back in the direction of his brother, Sasuke unclenched his fist and sat up straighter at the alertness in his brothers voice. It sounded on the borderline of turning into panic. "Just… weird."

"Weird _how_?"

Sasuke felt his eyes widen. It _was_ panic. "Just weird. … Itachi, what aren't you telling me?"

"Weird _how_, Sasuke?"

Shooting his brother one last look, he sighed. "Like… like _real_. It's like it's real. And… I think Kakashi's in there. He's my teacher or… something. And… uh… You're…" Sasuke shot his brother a nervous glance, his eyes overflowing with emotion for once. Fury, sadness, fear…

Before Sasuke could blink, Itachi was in front of him, his hands on either side of his face, holding onto it tightly. "Don't tell, _anyone_, Sasuke. Promise me."

"Itachi, what…?"

"Just… just _promise_ me."

Sasuke stared his brother in both of his eyes to see the complete and utter seriousness and fear that took over his usually emotionless features. "… I promise."

"Have you told anyone else?"

Sasuke shook his head. "You're the only one so far."

Itachi studied his brother to see if he was telling the truth and nodded. He let go of

Sasuke's face and backed up a step just for the two to study each other, trying to figure out just how serious they should take it all.

With a yawn that showed just how exhausted and bored he was, Sasuke leaned back against the back wall of the bleachers in the gym, his certificate of… something clutched in his hand. It's not like he was paying attention when they said it. He squinted down at the paper that was slowly blurring in his exhaustion. Blinking rapidly, the words came into focus. 'Academic Excellence.' It was a certificate for academic excellence during the fall season. Rolling his eyes, he placed the certificate next to him on the bleacher.

He was a freshman on the varsity soccer team. And he earned a letter. It was good enough for him.

With a quiet snort, Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, looking the epitome of cool. '_Yeah. Right. Good enough, my ass_.' With another yawn, Sasuke blinked his eyes open just to close them again.

'_**Five minutes wouldn't hurt…**_'

* * *

"_Who the hell are you?"_

_Sasuke watched as the man—who looked suspiciously like a woman, if you asked him—took the heaven scroll in his hand and slowly burned it to ash. The man… the man was creepy. There were no other words for it. His yellow, snake-like left eye was focused on the dark haired boy, the rest of his face slowly seeming to flake off as if it were melting. Sasuke blinked out of his stupor and narrowed his eyes as the man spoke. _

"My name is Orochimaru. If you want to see me again, then survive this test and pass this exam… Of course, defeating my team, the sound-nin trio, on the way."

_Sasuke scowled at all of the gibberish coming out of the man's mouth. What was he _talking_ about? It wasn't like he _cared _about all of that useless crap. He just wanted to know how this man knew of his brother. If he knew then maybe…_

_Shaking the thought from his mind, he held his stance just in case the man decided to attack. "What the hell are you talking about? We'd never want to see your face again!" _

_Too creepy to want to see again, was more like it. Watching the man, he saw his mouth move as he mumbled to himself and braced himself as a crazy grin stretched across his still melting face. Sasuke felt his limbs completely freeze as the man's neck began to stretch up and away from his body, getting closer and closer to Sasuke at a rapid speed. Before he could even blink, the head was next to his own, the mouth dangerously close to his own neck._

_And that's when he felt it. _

_The teeth of the man had sunk into his neck, and before he could even move, Orochimaru's—that _was_ his name, right? Sasuke couldn't really remember—head had retreated back. Struck speechless, he watched Orochimaru form a hand sign and sink into the ground._

"_Sasuke-kun"—'who the hell told him to call me that?'—"will seek me to seek power." _

_As the strange snake-man disappeared into the ground, Sasuke began to feel the beginnings of pain in his shoulder. Not even comprehending what was coming out of his mouth, he desperately clutched his shoulder and began to sink to the ground, letting out a long, loud scream of pain._

* * *

"Holy sonuva…!"

With a exclamation of surprise and a shout of pain, Sasuke snapped upright and looked around. He nearly fell off of the bleachers when he noticed that everyone that was leaving the gym was staring at him.

"Oi. Uchiha! Something you'd like to share with the rest of us?"

Sasuke blinked in confusion and stared at his teammate that was standing in front of him (was it Li or Kyo?? Blasted twins…). Sasuke shook his head and was about to respond when he felt a sudden sharp pain on his shoulder. He leaned over in response to the pain and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Sasuke… Sasuke! You okay?"

Blinking as his vision blurred, Sasuke blinked at the form in front of him. From the panicky pitch of the voice, it was definitely Kyo. Not that the other boy's form was _clear_ or anything. Heck, his vision was just as blurry as before. Faintly hearing someone call for his coach, Sasuke put a shaking hand on his right thigh only to look down in confusion as his hands became wet to the touch. Bringing his hand up to his face, Sasuke felt his eyes widen in disbelief at the red liquid that coated it. He didn't even know that he was injured in his dream! He shook his head in an attempt to clear his head. Before he could even register what was happening, his world became dark as he fainted.

* * *

"Oi, Uchiha."

With a groan, Sasuke blinked his eyes open to see his soccer coach standing over him. "… What happened?"

He saw his coach twist up his mouth in such a way that signaled that he didn't like something. Sasuke wasn't sure whether it was the question he didn't like or the answer. "I don't know, kid. You tell me."

Groaning, Sasuke sat up and stared at the older man. "… So… uhm… coach… what happens now?"

"Now, you wait for your family to get here while I go and be sure everyone else is where they're supposed to be. Now lay your ass down and get some rest."

Without responding, Sasuke sighed and lay down on his back. When the older man left the room, Sasuke rolled over, facing the wall. What the hell happened? A flash of memories went through his mind and he sat up and looked around the room. He groaned when his eyes landed on his khaki pants at the end of the bed. His good pants. The ones that had the dark red stain of blood on them. Groaning, he reached out and picked them up, studying the stain.

"Ugh… 'kaa-san's going to kill me…" he muttered.

He pulled up the sheet and looked down at the bandage that was wrapped around his thigh. There was a long line of blood on the bandage, as if he was cut deep, but… he didn't feel anything. No pain. No numbness. Nothing. Slowly, he reached down and pulled back the bandage on his thigh. The sight that his mind registered was not the one he was expecting at all. He was so surprised that he nearly dropped the sheet in surprise. The skin of his leg seemed to be healing itself—the gash was no more. In its place was a scar that looked red and tender, and it, too, slowly disappearing, leaving the skin looking as unscarred as it was before. When the process was complete, all that was left was a small, barely visible scar.

'What the hell is going on…?'

Sasuke blinked out of his trance when he heard a noise outside of the door and yanked the bandage back down before her turned his focus to the door. Maybe it was his coach…? Holding his breath, Sasuke focused on the door, feeling as if something bad was going to happen.

He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding when his coach poked his head into the room. "Your brother's here, Uchiha. And… take care of yourself, okay kid?"

Nodding without a word, Sasuke stood and pulled his—now bloody—pants on and made his way out the door. He paused in the middle of running his hand through his disheveled hair when he noticed how dark the hallway was. But then again, no one was _ever _at school this late. And it was the nursing wing of the school. Of course the lights would be off…

Right?

Trying to shake away the nagging sensation that something was wrong, he slowly began his walk down the hallway. His eyebrows furrowed and his mouth turned down into a frown when the soft sounds of footsteps reached his ears. Without even missing a beat, he broke into a sprint and turned the corner into the even darker gym hallway and made his way toward the boys' locker room. Without wasting anytime, he burst into the almost pitch dark room and tried to even out his breathing.

Remembering a trick that was played on him when he was the "new guy" on the team, he felt his way over to a dark corner behind the door and waited for whoever was following him to enter. When the door opened, there was a moment where his onyx eyes seemed to flash red. And for that moment, everything around him seemed… _clear._ Taking advantage of that brief moment, he jumped out from the corner and kicked the man in the gut, sending him back out the door and into his partner, knocking them both to the ground. Wasting no time, he took the chance to jump over the two and run out of the locker room, making his way back toward the main hallway. Him momentum was stopped when, as soon as he got to the slightly lighter main hallway, someone slammed into his side and tackled him to the ground.

In blind fear, Sasuke began to swing his arms and legs about in every direction he could. Catching a flash of white from a cloth in his captor's hands, he thrashed even harder. He'd seen enough movies to have an idea of what _that _would do to him. Sasuke's thrashing was stopped when his captor sent a harsh punch into his gut, sending the air out of the boy's lungs. Breathless, Sasuke began to gasp desperately for air and couldn't stop the chemical-covered cloth from covering his mouth.

When he began to feel immediately drowsy, he couldn't help but to hope that he would, for once, have a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Snapping up in alarm, Sasuke took a deep breath of fresh air just to stop when all he saw was… white. Blinking, his vision cleared from being a sleepy blur to a sharper picture. It was a room. White walls, white sheets… the only hint of color was the black shirt folded neatly and placed on top of a _white _pair of pants.

Rolling his eyes at the unoriginality of it all, Sasuke stood and picked up the white pants and black T-shirt, and shrugged. It's not like his bloodied pants and dirtied—since when did the school floors get that dirty? —shirt were going to be comfortable. Pulling on the new clothes he wasn't even surprised to see that they fit. Nothing was surprising at this point.

As soon as he had his clothes on and straightened out, he sat down on the bed and looked around the room once again. Before he was able to get settled in any sort of way—or figure out what the hell was going on—the door to the room slipped open. His instincts told him that there was no way that he could successfully escape. He didn't know the place well enough, after all; there was no telling what was beyond the walls of that building. Instead of attempting to run out of the open door, he just shifted his eyes toward the door in a lazy, Shikamaru-like fashion.

Two people walked into the room and motioned for him to follow them. With a roll of his eyes, he made it apparent that he wasn't even going to bother to hide his irritation.

"Right. Why the hell should I follow you?"

The other man just growled. "If you don't follow, you're stuck in here. It's as simple as that."

Grumbling revelation, Sasuke followed them down hallways. They changed direction every now and then just to come to other hallways that looked exactly like the one they were on before. Though Sasuke had to admit that the section they were now in _did_ look a bit newer compared to the one that he was roomed in. When they finally stopped in front of the door, the only thing Sasuke felt was the kind of nervousness that he got just before a soccer game.

What the hell was so important that they drag him there, anyway?

When they opened the door, Sasuke was surprised to find that he was surprised. There was none of the torture devices or anything, like he saw in the movies. Although he knew movie situations were highly unlikely, he figured being kidnapped and waking up in a place that looked a lot like an asylum found in movies was unlikely as well.

Instead of seeing anything movie-like, he caught sight of pink and silver sitting on a couch, content with each other's presence, albeit a bit tired.

"Er… Kakashi? Sakura?"

The two snapped out of their slight stupor and looked mildly surprised to see Sasuke standing in the doorway. When he was shoved into the room and the door shut behind him, Sasuke was so shocked that he had no response. He managed to stop himself from falling to the ground in an embarrassing heap and moved to sit in the solitary chair next to the couch that the two sat on.

"Kakashi! I mean, I knew _you_ were real, but I didn't know Sakura was real and that's so weird and do you think Naruto's real, too? And… and… everyone thinks you're dead now! Heck, aniki might think _I'm_ dead!" He paused in his excitement and flushed when he saw the two stare at him, shocked. "Er… You guys were expecting me, weren't you?"

Sakura blinked her clover eyes at his rant and a ghost of a smile appeared on her slightly rosy lips. "Sort of. We knew _someone_ was coming… Since they kind of built the new section and everything. And our dreams started over."

Sasuke frowned and studied the girl. This wasn't the loud, fan-crazy Sakura that he knew in his dreams. The one whose dark side came out when she was mad enough. He shot a look to Kakashi.

"So… this was where you disappeared to last year, Kakashi-senpai?"

The older boy snorted. "Yeah… They were kind of rude about it, too. They came and got me when I was at home."

Sasuke snorted. "That day you freaked and ran out of class? Yeah. Everyone was talking about it." He paused. "I think aniki kind of blames himself… somehow." He shook his head. "They practically chased me down in an empty school, so… yeah."

As the two talked, Sakura studied Sasuke and noted that he looked… happier than he did in her dreams. A lot happier. She smiled happily at the dark haired boy. "So… your family…?"

Sasuke—she would have fainted if the thought even managed to slip into, and through, her confused brain—smiled. "Yeah. They're alive. Kakashi-senpai's my brother's friend."

Sakura looked at Kakashi for confirmation and he nodded. "Yup. Best friends."

There was an uncomfortable silence between the three before Sasuke spoke up. "Why the hell are we here?"

Sakura and Kakashi shared a look. "You want to do it?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi shook his head and leaned back against the couch comfortably. "Nah. You've been here longer. You do it."

"Well… We're in this place that they like to call the CLINIC. Like I told Kakashi, I have no idea if it's supposed to mean something or if it's a lack of creativity. Anyways, what I'm getting so far is that we're all having the same dreams. So… since we're having the same dreams of each other, then they're collecting us all for… something."

"… Something?" Sasuke asked, one dark eyebrow raised in question.

"Yes, _something_," she snapped. "There's not really enough of us to come up with a conclusion, yet, Sasuke!"

Sasuke smirked, one corner of his mouth turned up in half a smile. "Ah… there's the Sakura-san I remember."

Blinking, Sakura smiled slightly and the three sat back in their seats once again.

**-ONE MONTH LATER-**

The fourteen and eighteen year old boys each sat in a seat, lounging lazily. When the door didn't open again in the thirty minutes that the two have been there, Kakashi stood and made his way over to the closed door and knocked. "Oi! Where's Sakura-san you crazy bastards?" He asked the door. He heard Sasuke snort behind him at his choice of words, but just ignored the younger boy. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Kakashi could almost hear the guard behind the door sweat. That thought alone made the hair on the back of his neck rise in slight fear. He turned to Sasuke to see that the boy had the same emotion in his eye. When the two heard shuffling on the other side of the door, they nervously waited for a response.

"She's… ah… how to put this… uhm… out of commission?"

"WHAT?" the two teens snapped at the door.

Kakashi scowled and banged on the door. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Turning away from the door, he began to make his way over to Sasuke, who was now standing, before he seemed the change his mind and go back to the door. "Get that… that doctor guy. Whatshisface."

"He's, uh… he's not here."

Kakashi scowled and hit the door again. Sakura was so _young_… She was there for such a long time… He couldn't help but to care about the well being of the kid. "Then get another fucking doctor!" Kakashi growled.

"I'm sorry, I… uh… can't."

In anger, Kakashi sent a punch towards the door and instantly regretted it when his hand made contact. It wasn't like he could chidori the door down or anything. Heck, he was a far cry from Copy-nin Kakashi. And that was the most frustrating part of the whole situation.

Holding back a shout of anger, Kakashi chose to groan instead before he flopped back down in his seat where he and Sasuke sat in complete silence.

**End Part IV**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Part V: Year 5- Tenten and Rock Lee**

**Author's Notes 1: **If you don't want spoilers (as in you've never ever read the manga or watched the show past the chuunin exams—that's what I've covered so far) then, just skip the dreams. But I'm pretty sure most everyone is past that point, right:-D Oh yeah… and that last part… you see… I kinda wanted Kakashi to overreact, but when I planned it out, I realized that I had no clue how to end it. So silence it is:) So…. REVIEW PLEASE!! I haven't read over this edited version yet so… Constructive criticism welcome. :-D

**Finished: February 15, 2006  
****Edited: August 5, 2007  
****Published: August 6, 2007**


	6. Part V: Year 5, Tenten and Rock Lee

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like… a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part V: Year 5 **

**Tenten and Rock Lee**

Heaving another sigh, Tenten turned away from her mirror and ran both of her hands repetitively though her long hair. It had been up in a braid all day and it was stuck being wavy in such a way that she was too lazy to straighten it. Shrugging to herself, she shook her head and walked over to her desk. Grabbing a hair tie, she put it around her wrist and picked up her sweatshirt before pulling it over her head. Grabbing her keys, Tenten walked out of her room with a loud yawn. Ignoring her exhaustion, she bounded down the stairs and made her way toward the kitchen, all while tying her hair up into a low ponytail.

Poking her head into the kitchen, she smiled. "Hey, Mom."

Her mother stopped slicing the tomatoes she was preparing for a salad and smiled at her daughter. "Hey, honey." She studied Tenten closely. "You've been looking tired lately. Are you feeling okay?"

Tenten nodded and ran a finger across the counter. "I'm fine, mom. Hey, do you mind if I go out for a minute?"

"But dinner…" Her mother paused and shook her head. "Actually, where are you going?"

Tenten smiled and stuffed her hands into her sweatshirt pocket. "Eh… I thought I'd, you know, go for a walk…"

Her mom waved it off. "… All right. But take the dog with you, okay? I'm going to take a nap, so when you get back, dinner's in the fridge, okay?"

Tenten nodded before getting the sudden urge to show her mother some sign of affection. Walking around the counter, she leaned in and gave her mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek before going toward the back door connected to the kitchen. "Okay… bye. I'll see you later."

* * *

Brushing her bangs out of her face out of sheet nervousness, Tenten stared at the door. She hadn't been here in what seemed like _forever_. Shaking away her nervousness, she reached out for the doorbell and paused millimeters from pushing the button. What if he rejected her? Turned her away? It wouldn't be any different from what she did to him when they first got into high school…

Okay, so it would have been completely different, but still—it would have been kind of cruel for him to turn her away without saying anything. And he wasn't like that… high school couldn't have changed him _too _much, right?

Right??

Shaking her head, she let her negative thoughts overtake her senses and pulled her hand away from the doorbell and back to her side. Turning around, she walked back to the edge of the porch before pausing. He wouldn't turn her away. He wasn't like that. And holding on to that spark of hope, she turned around and rang the doorbell before she could change her mind. Without even knowing it, she began to rock on her heels out of nervousness.

When the door opened, she placed a nervous smile on her face and tried not to let it drop when she came face to face with a shocked Rock Lee.

"Tenten-chan?"

She shifted from foot to foot and waved slightly. "Er… hi, Lee-kun."

He opened the door wider and stepped outside on the porch. He pulled at the hem of his T-shirt in such a way that she could tell that he found the moment awkward. "Hey. Eh… how are you?"

She just smiled slightly before she turned and sat down on the porch step. "I'm doing good. How about you?"

He sent her a wide smile and she couldn't help but to be expecting him to do his good-guy pose. She shook the thought out of her head when a little voice in the back of her head seemed to remind her that this Rock Lee didn't _have_ a good-guy pose. Tenten smiled and held back the small laugh at the thought before turning to study her friend. He, like her, seemed to have dark bags under his eyes (though his long eyelashes seemed to cover them up slightly). She was snapped out of her thoughts when he sat next to her and began to speak. "I could be better. … I missed talking to you, Tenten-chan. You know that you were my best friend, right?"

She smiled sadly and leaned against him, nodding. "I've been meaning to say… I'm sorry. I'm so, _so _sorry, Lee-kun." She looked up at him, her eyes glassy and the dark bags under her eyes more prominent. "I just… it was high school, you know? We didn't see each other much with you in honors classes and me with sports… You were my best friend, you know? And I miss that." She took a shaky breath after her short rant and tried to calm her nerves.

He studied her for a moment and, unable to take his scrutiny, she looked down at her lap. "It's all right Ten. … Hey. We can still be friends, you know?" He dipped his head so that he could look at her face. "… And have you lost sleep over this?"

She shook her head frantically. "No! I just… We need to talk."

Seeing the completely serious look on her face, he nodded and nudged shoulders with her, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "About what? Is this about your crush on Neji-san or something?"

Tenten couldn't stop the shocked look that spread across her face, nor could she stop the light blush that began to cover her cheeks. "How did you… I mean… it's not that obvious, is it? And I don't have a crush on him, I just think that he's cute!"

He smiled slightly and shook his head. "So you don't have a crush on him like you did when we were training under Gai-sensei?"

"No, it's nothing like… that…" She paused and narrowed her eyes at him. "How did you know about that?"

He watched as her small pink mouth formed into a small 'O' and he laughed. "You have the same bags under your eyes that I do, so I figured that it would be a good guess."

He watched as she beckoned her dog over to them and unhooked the leash from his collar. The dog barked with something close with joy and began to play around in Lee's front yard. Lee turned his attention away from the dog and turned back to his friend to see her twisting the leash around between her fingers. "Do you think that…" she paused and took a deep breath before starting over. "Do you think that everyone else in our dreams are real and having the same dreams as us?"

He looked up at the blue sky and sighed while blowing his hair out of his eyes. "You know… that's a good question."

Tenten nodded before, startled, she turned to look at him. "Hey!"

He blinked his large eyes at her in surprise and confusion. "Uhm… Hi?"

She shook her head. "No, I mean… your hair! It's not in a bowl cut!"

He rolled his eyes and shot her a small glare. "Do you really think that I would be that crazy to do crap like get that awful haircut? That shit was crazy!"

She blinked at Lee's use of profanity (he rarely, if ever, cursed… or at least that was the way she remembered him when they were fourteen). She then laughed and shook her head. "Right. I kind of forgot. Those dreams feel so real, you know? And with the 'power of youth!' stuff being pounded into my head while training with you, or whatever, it just kind of stuck…"

Rock Lee smiled slightly as she reached out and yanked on one of his slightly curled out locks. Unlike his dream self, he had no bowl cut (he personally thought that it was _the_ most ridiculous thing), but, instead, stuck to letting his hair grow and flip out. "Ah… such is the power of youth."

She let go of his hair and whacked him upside the head. "Do you know how creepy that was? It was like… seeing Gai-sensei… without the bowl cut… and the jumpsuit. I'm sorry, but… I can take the bowl cut, but that jumpsuit…. It was just so…so… _green._"

He sent her a cheeky smile and pulled on his shirt. "You have a problem with green, Tenten-chan?"

She snorted. "No… just green jumpsuits and legwarmers." She smiled and stood. "Anyway, do you want to go for a walk?"

He shrugged. "Sure. Let me just go leave a note for my parents and get my shoes."

She nodded and, as he stepped inside his house, called out for her dog and sat patiently on his porch.

* * *

"So… what have you dreamt of so far?" Tenten asked as she tugged lightly on the leash in her hand.

Lee scratched his head in thought and then shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I don't know. Right before the Chuunin exam, I guess."

"And Kakashi's team is taking it, right? With that Naruto kid."

He chanced a sidelong glance at her and raised a thick eyebrow. "Yeah, actually." He paused in his steps and looked up at the sky in a lazy, Shikamaru-like fashion. "So… I guess this is for real, huh?"

Tenten paused as well and looked back at him, her dog stopping and turning around, his pink tongue hanging out of his mouth. "What do you mean?"

" I mean… we're having the same _dreams_ Ten. Something's up when that starts to happen, and I would think that it's not natural. And as much as I hate to say it, it's not a _coincidence_."

Tenten groaned. "Gosh, you read me too well. You _knew_ that I was going to say that." She shrugged and kept walking. "So… So much for coincidences, huh?"

He sighed and followed after her. "I would guess so." After a moment in silence he turned his attention to her. "What do you say we look in the phonebooks?"

She blinked in confusion. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Well… since Neji is in our dreams and he's… well… _real_, maybe other people are here too. It'd be cool."

She smiled before a yawn came bursting forth. "I don't see why not."

"We'll drop him," he pointed at her dog, "off at your house and then go to my house." He blinked and looked down at the dog in confusion. "And when did you get a dog, anyway?"

She smiled slightly leaned down to pet her dog's white coat affectionately when they got to his side. "He's a husky. We were at the dog pound after soccer practice last season and they were talking about putting him to sleep. I didn't want that to happen though… Champ was such a good dog. Pretty, too. So mom let me adopt him."

Lee shifted uncomfortably when they reached her house and stopped her from going up the porch stairs. "How are you guys doing since, you know… your step dad died and everything?"

Tenten shrugged. "I'm…" She paused and blinked slowly. "I guess I'm kind of over it, you know? Well… as over it as I can be. He might as well have been my own father. He's been there since I was born. But okaa-san… She's still kind of broken up about it. So… don't mention him around her and she'll be fine."

He shook his head dramatically and used his arms for even more of an effect. "But I'm not… I wasn't… uhm…"

"Yes, you _are_ coming in. Mom would want to see you again. She loved you, you know. You were like… a son."

He sighed and let her drag him into the house. Taking a quick glance around the foyer, he took note that it looked almost exactly the same as when was last there two years ago, at fourteen. Directly to his left, there was a dining room, still decorated with various pictures and paintings with a beautiful mirror hanging on the main wall. To the right was the hallway that he remembered led to the bedrooms. Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he looked straight ahead, where there was a small hallway that had a small bathroom and led to the kitchen.

Lee sighed again and shifted awkwardly until he saw Tenten come down the right hallway. "What's going on?"

"Eh… 'kaa-san's asleep. So I left a note next to her bed saying I was going to your house."

Lee shrugged and opened the front door, letting her walk out ahead of him. When she sent him a strange look, he shrugged with a smile. "Eh… those gentlemanly ways that was pounded into my head just kind of stuck."

With a shrug, she walked out the house with Lee in tow.

* * *

Tenten jumped as Lee tapped her on the shoulder. "Geeze, Lee! Don't _do _that! I'm already freaked out enough by this creepy feeling that I've had since we left my house. It's like… like—"

"Someone is watching us."

"Yeah! That!" She then paused and blinked up at him, her brown eyes wide. "Wait, what? Are you serious?"

He nodded and kept his eyes straight ahead. "Yeah. That van has been following us since we left. So just act natural"

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked calmer and more focused, but her fear remained the dominant of them all. "Okay. Okay…." She shook her head. "New topic then! Lee."

When they reached his porch, he went up the stairs and opened the door to his house for her. "Yeah?"

"Do you think we can do the stuff that we can do in our dreams?" she asked, her voice quiet. "I mean, since we are having the dreams and there's a van following us and I could just _feel_ that it was following us without even turning around, I'm starting to think anything is possible."

When he closed the door behind himself, he noticed that her hands were shaking when she reached up to brush her bangs out of her face. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah… yeah, I think so." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a mechanical pencil and studied it in an attempt to calm her nerves. She continued to do so when they began to go up the stairs to his room. "Hey, Lee, can I try your old dartboard?"

He studied her strangely. "Ten, you suck at darts."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I realize that, thanks," she said sarcastically. " But I want to see if we really _can_ do those things."

He shrugged and pulled the darts out of the board before handing them to her. "Sure. Here."

Tenten watched him stand next to his bed and looked prepared to do something. "Are you… are you preparing to _move_?" She asked. She sent him a scowl and turned back to the door. "Have a little faith, sheesh," she mumbled.

He narrowed his eyes at her and snorted. "Don't give _me_ those looks. I will _never_ forget that time you threw the dart _behind _you instead of at the wall."

She blushed in embarrassment, but didn't turn around. "Eh… whatever." Peering at one of the darts, she shrugged and tossed it at the board in a lazy manner. "Whoa! Did you see that?"

Tenten turned around to see that Lee had actually dived behind his bed. He was now peeking out and staring at the board, his mouth open in a wide 'O'. "Bulls eye? I don't believe you. Do it again."

Walking over to the dartboard, she pulled the one she just shot out and went back to her original position. Feeling Lee's presence somewhere behind her, she shrugged and threw the dart again. It was another bull's-eye. There was a long stretch of amazed silence in the room and Tenten looked down at the rest of the darts in her hand. Deciding to take a chance, she instinctively grabbed four and they flipped smoothly in between the fingers of her right fist and threw them all at the board at once. Taking the last dart in her left hand, she threw that as well.

When all five hit the board and stuck, she turned, wide-eyed, and looked at an equally wide-eyed Rock Lee. "Lee. I just hit the dartboard. Like… with all six of the darts. I haven't touched those things since I accidentally threw one at you when we were thirteen! I think we _can_ do some of those things. Or something. It's the only explanation!"

He suddenly turned serious and rubbed his eyes in exhaustion. "Which means that there's a higher possibility that everyone else exists."

Tenten nodded, put her hands on her hips, and grinned. "Well… what are you waiting for? Let's pull out that phonebook and see!"

* * *

"How the hell are Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura all _missing_?" Tenten muttered, frustrated. The two were sitting in Rock Lee's room, each with a phone book in front of them, the cordless phone next to Tenten.

"Gai-sensei is unlisted, we know Hyuuga exists… but what is everyone else's last name?"

Tenten shrugged. "I don't know." She snapped her fingers. "What was that teacher's name? From the academy? And that blonde kid?"

Rock Lee thought for a minute. "Wait. You mean Iruka-sensei?"

"Um, um… Right! Umino Iruka!"

"And the kid was Uzumaki Naruto." Rock Lee rolled his eyes. "He said it so loud, how can I forget? He wants to be Hokage."

She snorted and quickly flipped through the phonebook. "Yeah, I guess…" She trailed off and grabbed a pen, keeping her finger at a place in the book. "I found Iruka-sensei! Or at least I think it's him."

He shrugged. "Circle it anyway. We can call later."

She nodded and circled his name in the phonebook before the sound of a creak reached her ears. "Did you hear that?"

He stood up slowly and nodded. "Yeah, I heard it."

Tenten stood as well and followed him out of his room. She followed him quietly down the stairs and they both tensed when they peeked around the corner. The front door was open.

"Uhm… Lee," Tenten started. "You shut the door earlier, right?"

He shot her a look and nodded. "Yeah. I did."

She let out a shriek when she felt an arm wrap around her neck and another around her waist, dragging her back and away from Lee. He turned around and was about to make a move toward her when another shriek tore from her throat. "Look out!"

Tenten and her captor paused and watched in shock as Lee moved too fast for them to follow. Before they could even comprehend it, his attacker was thrown into the wall with immeasurable strength. Breaking out of her stupor, she noticed that her captor was no longer pulling her back, still in shock—and possibly even fear. Not wasting what could possibly be her only chance at getting away, she reached back and pushed her thumbs in his eyes. He let out a yell and let go of her to clutch at his eyes in desperation.

She pushed him away from her and darted toward the stairs. Running into Lee's room, she grabbed the six darts off of the board and turned around just to yell out when she found another one behind her. Taking a step back, she took a deep breath to try to calm herself.

Letting her instincts take over, she let a kick launch into their face and whacked them in the back of the neck with her empty hand. When her attacker fell to the floor with a grunt, she gave them one last kick before she turned and made her way out of Lee's room. At the top of the stairs, she spotted Lee being held against a wall. Praying silently, she took a dart, aimed and then let it fly. When the man let out a shout of pain, Lee took his chance and pushed him back.

When Tenten stumbled her way to the bottom of the stairs, he grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door just to come to a halt when they spotted two more coming up the porch steps. Tenten threw two more darts and backed up until she ran into a hard chest. She gasped in horror when she saw her first assailant behind her, squinting his dark eyes at her, his eyelids red from the pressure she put on them.

Lee turned at her gasp and watched as the man pressed a pressure point in his friend's neck. Her body went limp and the darts fell to the ground. Before she could fall on her small, sharp weapons, her assailant caught her. Lee moved to react, but before he could even move a muscle, he felt a jab in the back of his own neck and then all was dark.

* * *

_"Hey. It's Rock Lee. If you know my family, you know who I am. We're not here right now so leave a name, message, number, or none of the above after the beep and we'll get back to you!"_

BEEP.

"Rock Lee, I found a letter that said that Tenten was supposed to be at your house and she left this number. I was wondering if you could send her home tomorrow since it's getting kind of late. Tell her to call me tomorrow when she's about to leave. Have any questions, just call me on her cell since she left it here. Bye, now."

"_**10:35 P.M. No more new messages." **_

BEEP.

_

* * *

_

"Hey guys! It's Tenten's cell. Leave me one and I'll call you back!"

BEEP.

Sobs were heard on the other line. "Kaori, I don't know what to say. We came home from our anniversary date and there was blood… and the door was open… then we got your message… our children are missing!" More crying. "_Please_ come over as soon as you get this message." A woman choking on her tears was heard and then the line went dead.

"_**12:01 A.M. No more new messages."**_

* * *

Tenten groaned, sat up and rubbed her neck to get rid of the tension. Pausing mid rub, she snapped her eyes completely open and looked around in surprise. She half expected to be in her own room at home, holding on to the false hope that everything that had happened was a dream. She shook the thought away and scanned the room. It was a drab, white room with a metal bed with a plain, clean mattress with white sheets. She figured that if there were cushions on the walls, she was in a straight jacket and the bed was nonexistent it would be the typical movie version of a room for an insane person.

Thank God it wasn't, she'd say.

Throwing her legs over the side of the bed, she stood and ran a hand through her hair. Then she began to pace just to stop. Lifting her foot, she pulled her shoe off and threw it at the door in frustration. "Where the fuck am I?!"

**-TWO WEEKS LATER-**

Tenten struggled as she was dragged down the hall. Sure, she could take being put into ridiculously clean, white clothes. And she could take being cooped up into that _awful _room for weeks at a time. What she couldn't take was that when she _finally_ got a chance to get some exercise, they drag her down the damn hall like a doll. Sure, it was the guys that she threw the darts at and stabbed with her thumbs, but _still. _

So she decided to do the most obnoxious thing ever: She went screaming and kicking.

"You stupid sonofa… I can walk, so just let me GO!" She was startled when they picked her up, turned her around, and brought her face to face with a door. One of the men holding her opened in and then threw her into the room before closing the door behind her. Scowling, she stood and ran toward the door, her hair down and damp with sweat. "You _bastards_! I mean…" She paused and tried to think of something to get them to let her go. Calling them names was most definitely _not_ going to do the trick. "LET ME OUT, DAMN IT!"

"Tenten-chan?"

Turning, her mood seemed to do a complete 180. She smiled widely and launched herself at the bushy-browed boy. "Lee! You're all right! They wouldn't tell me anything! What happened to you? Where are we? _Are you okay?_" Catching sight of familiar figures, she looked over Lee's shoulder. "And what do you know, the missing ones are here! What the hell is going on?" She then caught sight of pink on the couch. She looked over to Lee to see that sadness was reflected in his eyes and then turned her attention to the other two boys on the chairs around the couch. "What happened to her?"

Lee sighed and clamped a hand over her mouth in an attempt to get her to stop asking questions. "It's those dreams. They'll explain it to you."

A tired (and slightly younger, might she add) Hatake Kakashi looked up at her, his face grim.

**End Part V**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Part VI: Year 5- Umino Iruka**

**Author's Notes: **Let's see… after this whole… character development crap, they actually DO talk to each other. Heck… I might even throw Sai in there somehow. Cause I love him. LMAO. And I don't like Sasuke, but I'm trying to make that not so noticeable. So, **the tomato, **I can try to throw in a "speck/dash of sasukesaku" just for you. :-D Oh yeah! And hooray. College classes start next Wednesday (BOO!) so I can't really say how frequent my updates will be. Let's just see how this studying/assignment thing goes.

**Finished: March 30, 2006  
****Edited: August 14, 2007  
****Published: August 14, 2007**


	7. Part VI: Year 5, Umino Iruka

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

Note: I _think_ that Japanese schools start high school at tenth grade (not sure, though, so don't take my word for it), but for familiarity sake, I'm going to say it starts at ninth and in September. (Hey, people _do_ say to "write what you know" and all of that:D) And sorry that this chapter is so short.

All disclaimers apply.

_Italics_- dreams unless it's completely obvious that it's not. :D

* * *

**Part VI: Year 5 **

**Umino Iruka**

"Wow! Thanks, Iruka-sempai! This makes so much more sense, now!"

Iruka smiled and shook his head in amusement at the blonde haired freshman. Iruka had taken on the past to being the hyper-active Uzumaki Naruto's mentor for the year, and, so far, he found the kid to be entertaining, though sometimes infuriating. The kid stuck out the most at the school, being a foreigner. He had the blonde hair and blue eyes that marked him as someone not in the area. That made people either want to be his friend or be skeptical about the unfamiliar. Naruto wasn't quite sure where he came from because his parents had died in some sort of accident when he was just a kid. Iruka tried to treat him as much like a younger brother as he could, and it seemed to be all that the boy needed.

Iruka mentally shook himself out of his thoughts and watched Naruto squint down at the notes he made during their tutoring session. "Ah, I think you're just getting the grasp of the subject, Naruto."

Naruto sent Iruka a foxy grin. "I guess so. But sensei is so… _so…"_

"Old, boring, and monotonous?"

"Yeah! It's so boring!" he exclaimed. "I mean, _you_ make it seem like it seem so… _simple_." Iruka watched as Naruto looked up at him, his big blue eyes staring at him as if scrutinizing him. He was then startled when Naruto suddenly changed the topic. "Hey, have you been getting any sleep, Iruka-sempai?"

Surprised at the observation, Iruka placed a hand under one of his eyes and tried not to notice the heavy weight under it that showed his lack of sleep. Thinking quickly, Iruka gave the younger boy a smile. "I think it's just senior year. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be, you know? And it doesn't help that my senioritis kicked in."

Naruto groaned as he closed his Algebra I textbook. "You're so lucky that you're graduating this year."

Iruka smiled and stood from his chair in the library, giving Naruto an affectionate pat on the head. "Ah… there's only three more years, Naruto. You'll get the hang of it. As far as I know, it gets better. And besides, it's just November, after all." Iruka watched as he stuffed the textbook in his bag, ran a hand through his unruly blonde hair as he stood, and put his hands in the pockets of his uniform pants. "Say, Naruto… what do you say I treat you to some ramen before you go back to the orphanage today? It's still your favorite food, right?"

Iruka grinned as the blonde boy's eyes lit up. Naruto threw his bag over his shoulder and began to push the older boy out of the library. "Ramen? Why didn't you say so! Let's go, hurry up, come ON!"

* * *

"Iruka-sempai, you're the best, you know that?"

Iruka chuckled and watched, amazed, as the fourteen year old sucked in his fifth bowl of noodles as if he were a vacuum. "Slow down, Naruto, before you choke."

As soon as the word 'choke' left his mouth, Naruto's eyes widened as a hunk of noodles lodged itself into his throat. Without missing a beat, Iruka smacked him on the back. At the powerful hit, Naruto swallowed. He paused for a moment to catch his breath and then continued to slurp the noodles down. "Arigato, Iruka-sempai!"

Iruka laughed and shook his head. "Just like old times, huh, Naruto?"

Naruto paused in his… eating (Iruka still hadn't quite figured out _what_ to call it. Eating? Vaccuming?). He looked up at the brown-haired seventeen-year-old and sent him a strange look. "Old times…? Iruka-sempai, are you okay? You've never bought me ramen before. Like… ever."

Iruka looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Oh… I guess not."

The blonde fourteen year old rolled his eyes and began to reach for more noodles in his bowl with his chopsticks. "Iruka-sempai, you're not telling me something!" he sing-songed before sucking up another mouthful of ramen. "So, whassamatta?"

Iruka shook his head and ran a hand through his rather short hair. "It's nothing. Weird dreams is all..." He poked the boy in the forehead and smiled before turning to his own bowl of noodles. "It's nothing to worry about." Except for the fact that when he's injured in a dream, he wakes up with a minor version of the same injuries. And not only that, he seemed to heal faster when he was awake.

But it was nothing to worry about, right?

Iruka snorted at his thoughts and focused on the bowl in front of him, ignoring the blonde's worried looks. If he didn't worry about this, he was an idiot.

"Come on, Naruto. Let's get you back to the orphanage before you get in trouble, ne?"

* * *

Iruka sighed in exhaustion and jammed his key into the lock. His parents most definitely wouldn't be home and, for once, he was way too exhausted to care. Groaning, he turned the key, unlocking the front door to his home. While he was pushing it open, someone came up behind him and grasped him in a chokehold, causing him to jerk in alarm. Clenching his teeth, he slammed his head back until it connected with flesh. Scratching his earlier thoughts on not caring that no one was home, he was really starting to care. It was like his whole _neighborhood_ was like that, which was definitely something he couldn't afford at the moment. He was being _attacked_ for goodness sake!

Falling backwards with his captor, he rolled away when they both hit the pathway leading to the porch. Rubbing the back of his head where it connected with his attacker's nose, he wasted no time in jumping up and making a dash for the street. When another black clothed person jumped in front of him (though why they felt the need to wear black in broad daylight was _beyond_ him), he lifted his school briefcase and whacked them across the face.

Before he could recover from the momentum of his swing, he felt something slash across his face. With a startled cry of pain, the seventeen year old covered the bridge of his nose with both hands and felt his eyes fill with salty tears. He felt his warm blood come dribbling down his face and through his clutched fingers. He blinked rapidly and tried to stop the salty tears from falling running into his scar.

He cleared his vision and stared in disbelief at what was held in his attacker's hand. '… They _hit_ me! With a fucking _tree branch!'_ he thought. Where did they _get _these guys?

He faintly took notice of everything becoming fuzzy and succumbed to the pain, fainting into darkness.

* * *

"_Who is that?"_

"_I don't know… do you know anyone with hair that short?"_

Iruka groaned and attempted to roll over just to be startled completely out of his sleep when he rolled over and hit the ground face first. When he felt his nose connect with solid ground, he grunted and winced as a sharp pain made itself known across the bridge of his nose. Once he pushed himself off of the ground and into a sitting position, he brought his hand up to his nose. A cloth (which he couldn't help but notice was beginning to feel a little wet as the pain became stronger) covered where he injured himself trying to get away, the bandage wrapped around his head securely.

He was startled out of his observations when a pale hand was extended out to him, appearing in his line of sight. Looking up, the brunette came face to face with a boy around his age that had silver hair.

Wait… silver hair?

"Kakashi?"

"Ah. Iruka-san." Kakashi sent Iruka a small smile. "So they got you too?"

Grasping the older boy's hand in numb shock, Iruka let himself be pulled to his feet. "Who exactly is 'they'?"

Kakashi shrugged in response. "I have no idea. But apparently we're at some place called the CLINIC, courtesy of the knowledge of Sakura-chan. Apparently her parents checked her in or something." He shrugged and looked up at the ceiling in thought. "They must have gotten a lot of information from her before I got here. Because those guys were _ready_ for me."

There was a moment of silence in the room and Iruka took the moment to look around. There was someone with dark hair sitting in an armchair with it's back to him, Tenten and Rock Lee were both sitting on some chairs that looked like it belonged to the table in the corner (he figured the must have pulled them closer to the sitting area). He himself had been sitting on a chair and leaning against a table (probably the reason he fell) just behind the couch and the armchair.

He was once again startled out of his observations when he finally caught sight of who the dark-haired person sitting in an armchair was. Uchiha Sasuke. "Say, Kakashi…" Sasuke started. "I've never asked, but how long has she been here anyway?"

"I've been here for a year so… that means she's been here for…" Kakashi paused in thought as he seemed to count inside of his head. His eyes widened slightly as the realization of the number hit him.

"Five years," said a new voice. Iruka turned his head toward the couch, surprised, to see a pink haired girl sitting up and rubbing her eyes. He didn't even know that she was there…

And what the hell was the explanation for the pink hair?

Iruka watched, amused, as the usually composed Sasuke (or at least the one _he_ knew…) jerked forward as the number and the voice registered in his head. "Five years?" Sakura stretched and gave the baffled group a small smile. "I've barely been here for half a year and I can't take it!" Sasuke continued. "And… wait, you're awake?"

Without answering his question, she smiled at Rock Lee, Tenten, and Iruka. "When did you all get here?"

Rock Lee and Tenten raised their hands. "Last month."

Iruka winced and rubbed the back of his head. It still hurt from when he slammed his head into that other guy's. "Eh… today."

The pink haired girl nodded and noticed the bandage across the bridge of his nose. "Eh… Iruka-senpai… what happened? You're bleeding."

The seventeen year old touched his bandage and his fingers came away with red on them. "Ah… Kami-sama…"

Tenten and Rock Lee stood and came over to Iruka. Tenten gave him an apologetic smile and made him sit down in the chair he had fallen off of so that she could hold him back. "Just in case it dried onto your wound or something," she offered at his questioning look.

He nodded and felt uneasy when Lee came up to him and began to take off his bandage. It's not like he had a problem with the two—he just had this weird thing about personal space. His eyes shifted over to the silver-haired boy and Kakashi gave him a sheepish smile before he went to sit on the other side of the couch from Sakura. Sasuke leaned closer to Sakura and seemed to be studying her curiously, very much unlike the quiet, brooding student that Iruka was used to.

"Eh… you were asleep for the whole time, Sakura-chan?" Sasuke asked.

She looked up at the black-haired, onyx-eyed boy with questioning eyes before it registered that he asked her a question. "Uhm… yeah, I guess so…" She looked around the room and her eyes focused on Iruka's nose. It didn't really look too good. It looked… _infected_, really.

"So… if you were asleep…" Sasuke continued. "And you didn't eat… how come you look so healthy?"

Surprised at the observation, everyone turned toward the couch to look at her as Sakura looked down at her skin, which had a healthy glow to it. Kakashi leaned closer to Sakura and motioned for her to look at him. When she did—uneasy at all of the attention she was getting—he tilted his head in question. "Sasuke… Lee, Tenten… Wasn't her hair long last month?" He asked as he fingered her silky pink locks. "Now that I think about it, your hair grows unnaturally fast, because it was this short last year."

She pulled her hair away from his grip and brushed it out of her face. "It's… weird. My hair, I mean. In those dreams… I end up cutting it… during the Chuunin exams."

Everyone but Iruka nodded. "Ah, I remember," Rock Lee said. "You did it for me, Naruto, and Sasuke."

She nodded and stood. Making her way around the couch and over to Iruka, she pulled up a chair and sat down in front of him with a smile. Moving slowly, she placed her hands over the broken skin on Iruka's face. "You know…" she started. "I used to have hair almost as dark as Sasuke's. And then, when I started having these dreams… it just kind of changed colors. My mother thought I was trying to get attention and sent me here." She was distracted from the bitter turn that her thoughts were taking and couldn't help but to giggled as the man went cross-eyed when her hands began to glow green.

When she lifted her hands off his face, only a clean scar remained. It was as if it had been there for years rather than a few hours. Poking the still tender skin slightly, she let out a loud yawn as exhaustion swiftly grabbed a hold of her.

"Ah… you're a medic, Sakura-chan?" Tenten asked. "When did that happen?"

"At fifteen. The only time I've gotten that far was before Kakashi came here."

"Wait a minute…" Kakashi stared wide-eyed between the scar and Sakura's hands. "We can control chakra here?"

There was a moment of silence before everyone seemed to shrug as one. Sasuke came closer to the group to study Sakura's handiwork. When she fainted, he reacted quickly and reached out to grab her. "Right, then." He walked over to the couch and laid her down before walking back over. "Was anyone else ever able to use chakra?"

There was a moment of silence when Tenten spoke up. "Not exactly. It was more like… I was good with weapons. I was _really bad_ at darts before, but now… I'm ridiculously good."

Lee nodded. "Yeah. I could move faster than I thought. Like… physically impossible fast. And I guess it was the chakra patterns of people that I felt?"

Tenten nodded in agreement. "Yeah! We knew that they were there and following us, but we weren't sure…"

There was a moment of silence before Sasuke thought of something and spoke up. "Uhm… I think…. I think I kind of used my Sharingan when they got me. I'm not sure though. It was so… it all just happened so _fast_."

Rock Lee sighed and ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face. "So… how will that help us _now_?"

**End Part VI**

* * *

**Next chapter: Part VII: Year 6- Uzumaki Naruto**

**Ages: **Okay, yeah. Update on their ages so that if you're lost, you don't have to keep going back to the intro to figure it out: Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto are all fourteen; Tenten and Rock Lee are sixteen; Iruka is seventeen; and Kakashi is eighteen. I thought I wrote this before in other chapters, but I didn't. So it will be updated from now on whenever there's an age change. :-D

**Author's Notes: **Ok so… 1) I thought I'd update since move-in day is tomorrow and classes start on Wednesday! So who knows what will happen this week! 2) I apologize for how BORING this chapter is. Kind of a crap ending but whatever. And I know that this story is going off to a slow start but it's because of the character development since they're all… different from the Naruto characters we all know and love and 3) I apologize ahead of time for any late updates. The next update will be AFTER Wednesday so I can tell you all how I think this is going to work. So… review. :-D

**Finished: June 11, 2006  
****Edited: August 16, 2007  
****Published: August 17, 2007**


	8. Part VII: Year 6, Uzumaki Naruto

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like… a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

_Italics_- dreams  
_(Italics)-_ flashback

* * *

**Part VII: Year 6**

**Uzumaki Naruto**

"Look at him! He's just… he's just sitting there! Like nothing happened!"

"Yeah, can you believe it?"

"No, I can't. I mean, he obviously did it; we all know he did it."

"Why is he still even here? Shouldn't he be in prison or something?"

"No, man. I heard Uzumaki was part of some killer gang or something! They covered for, you know. That's why he wasn't taken to court or anything."

"Oh, you are such a liar!"

"Oh yeah? Well how else would you explain Umino's disappearance?"

"…That is true, I guess…"

"Anyway, he's got a problem. He'll be nice to you and he'll stab you in the back."

"Oh, hey! Yeah! The boyfriend of my friend's sister's cousin said that too! Or maybe it was the sister's cousin's cousin? I don't know… something like that…?"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help but to listen in—what exactly are you guys talking about?"

"You must be new here! Everyone knows about Uzumaki. Anyway, just don't talk to him! The last time he talked to someone, they disappeared!"

"No way!"

"It's true! Ask anyone!!"

"So… what's the story?"

"People say that he had Iruka-sempai killed. Got close to him and then stabbed him in the back. And there's no reason for it to not be true: we all know he did it; he was the last one with him."

* * *

The fifteen-year-old blonde boy scowled and began to throw his books into his bag at random. For once, the teacher wasn't in the room to stop everyone from talking about Iruka's disappearance—or at least during that class period. Because of this, Naruto couldn't stop the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that told him that the teachers wanted him to suffer as much as the students did. Umino Iruka was everyone's favorite person and once the rumor wheel got turning, Shrugging the thought to the back of his head, he grabbed his bag and made his way from the room (he figured that he'd at least get a good education since it seemed to be all that he had left).

As he walked out of the room and made his way down to the library, he chose to think about his current situation. He used to be so liked amongst his peers… But Iruka—his mentor, his friend—was definitely more liked. When the older boy had disappeared, everyone was in shock. Naruto had the feeling that there was more to it, but he couldn't quite figure it out. Something had felt not right about that last day they were together. When people found out that he was the last one seen with the older student, nasty rumors began to spread. It had all happened so suddenly that he wasn't quite sure what to do about it.

So he, instead, chose to shy away. Stay quiet. Try to go through unnoticed (though the fact that he was obviously foreign didn't exactly help—he did have a shock of blonde hair and bright blue eyes that were rarely seen in a school full of native Japanese students).

It was April now and Naruto figured that Iruka would be studying for some big exam or other; the work piled up towards the end of the year, he had said. It was always best to try to stay on top of your studies, he had said. Sighing, Naruto looked up to see himself standing in front of the library. He sighed before turning and making his way toward the front door to the school. Studying could wait. He just didn't want to be anywhere near the school at the moment.

So he walked. After a while, he stopped and stared in front of the building that he had stopped in front of. It was Iruka's house. He was awfully familiar with the house because he had to walk by it on his way back to the orphanage every day. And every day he stopped in front of Iruka's house, even if it were just for a moment. This time, he just stared with many thoughts flying through his head at a rapid pace.

Iruka had disappeared in November and the last image that Naruto had of him was a tired, dark-haired boy who had bags under his eyes. Five months later, Naruto looked to be in the same state. He had many bags under his eyes (which only made him look guiltier in the eyes of others) from the many nights of no sleep. Before, dreams of what could have possibly happened to Iruka had haunted his dreams. Then, at the start of the New Year, he began to have strange dreams that seemed to be so incredibly… real. When he had finally woken up with bruises and cuts that were less serious versions of the ones in his dreams, he had finally gone to see Iruka's parents.

_

* * *

_

(Hands on bent knees in an attempt to catch his breath, Naruto looked up when the door opened. The man at the door was turned away from Naruto and the boy couldn't help but to feel a sense of dread. When the man turned and saw that it was the blonde-haired boy standing on his doorstep, he made a move to close the door. Not even worrying about the lack of air in his lungs from his run to the house, Naruto stuck his foot out and let it get caught in the door. "Umino-sama, please hear me out!" Naruto cried out desperately.

_Naruto fought the urge to flinch back when Iruka's father sent him a hard glare. When he finally grunted and opened the door wider to let him in, Naruto sighed in relief. _Now_ he had to get these people to believe the unbelievable theory that he had come up with. _

_"Honey, who is it?" Naruto stepped away from his shoes and looked up at the dark-haired woman that walked in. Naruto could tell that she was the one who Iruka took most after in looks and personality, but he had gotten his father's straight hair. When she sent him a small, sad smile, Naruto couldn't help but to return it. "Hello, Naruto."_

_There was a moment of silence and the three stood there in the foyer, staring at each other. Not able to take it, Naruto broke the silence to say what he had run there to say. He promised them that he would tell them if he remembered anything and—as unbelievable as this one was going to be, he felt as though he _had_ to tell them what he remembered. "Before Iruka-sempai… disappeared, did he mention anything about… weird dreams? Or wake up with injuries?"_

_"Of course not," Iruka's father snapped. "That's the most ridiculous—"_

_"Actually…" Iruka's mother quietly interrupted. "He always looked so tired… I always thought it was strange because he would be asleep by ten every night. When he woke up, he was always so tired and I always wondered how that could be. She paused before continuing. "There was one time… when I washed his sheets and they had blood on it."_

_Naruto's eyes widened. He then did the thing that he was known for doing in his dreams: he dove straight in. "… I think I'm having them, too! And there was this guy at our high school! Hatake Kakashi… They have this little… memorial type thing for him in the award box like he's dead or something." Feeling that was the wrong thing to say, he got back on topic to make his point. "Anyway, people said that he woke up in class one day, scared out of his wits and he ran out of the classroom. Tthere was a struggle outside of his house and that was the same day he disappeared! It's like Iruka's! And… I think I'm having the same dreams. I know that this is really unbelievable and that… it's really far out there, but I need you to believe me!"_

_There was a short period of silence after his mini-speech and he flinched when he looked at Iruka's father. The man glared hard at the boy before reaching out to the door and opening it. "Get out of my house."_

_Suddenly feeling a loss of respect for the man, Naruto sent him a glare and made his way out of the house. Opening his mouth, Naruto turned to say something when the door was slammed in his face and he heard shouting on the other side. He scowled at the door and ran a hand through his hair in anger. Turning around, he kicked at the air hard. In response to the force of his kickt, he went flying into the air and onto his back. He groaned and looked up to see that the door was open and that a small pair of feet in house shoes was in his line of sight. Sitting up, he turned his torso and looked up to see Iruka's mother standing in the doorway. _

_She crouched down in front of him with a smile. "He just… he needs someone to blame, Uzumaki-kun. Don't take it personally, okay? I know you didn't do it because I've seen you and Iruka together. You love him like he's your big brother. And I don't see why you would lie about the dreams… I know it's hard for you, but hang in there. And take care of yourself."_

_Naruto stared at the woman, slightly amazed, before he nodded. "Uhm… if it's not too much to ask, I have a request."_

_She smiled. "Depends on the request."_

_"… If something happens to me, please promise that you'll have _someone_ look into it."_

_"Naruto, I doubt that it will—"_

Please

_The lady smiled and nodded. "Okay.")_

* * *

With a sigh, Naruto took one last look at Iruka's house before turning and making his way back to the orphanage.

* * *

"Did you hear??"

"What?"

"Uzumaki was taken! They found his books scattered all around in front of the orphanage!"

"Really?"

"Hey, maybe it was the same people! The same ones who took Iruka-sempai and Kakashi-sempai."

"Dude…"

"You are so new, so that's excused."

"Yeah. That was so farfetched it's not even funny."

"… Huh. Well, I guess it kind of was…"

* * *

Naruto stared blankly ahead as they stopped in front of the door; his once bright blue eyes dull, but slightly questioning. It was the first time he's been out of the room they put him in since he got there. When he had walked out of school that day, he had been followed back to the orphanage. When he had stopped when he thought that someone was following him, he had found that he had been right: there had been someone following him.

He had been fighting in the beginning but then… Who would care? The one person that really treated Naruto as if he were family had been Iruka and… well, Iruka was gone. And high school was hard enough—socially—for him to even want to go back. Besides, why would someone follow, him? He couldn't help but to be curious.

And his curiosity had him in front of a random door at some random place. Mentally shrugging the thoughts off, Naruto looked around the room. There was a couch, a loveseat, a chair, and a table and chair a little further off than the others. He sighed and walked in before sitting in a chair at the table and putting his head down. When the door opened a few minutes later, he looked up, just to put his head back down. He sat there a moment longer when it registered in his mind what he just saw. Eyes widening in shock, he looked back up.

"Iruka-sempai!"

The eighteen-year-old blinked at him. "Naruto?" He grinned widely, the scar across his nose moving up slightly as if it were smiling as well. "Man, we were wondering when you were going to get here!" Iruka said while laughing happily. He sat down across from him at the table and gave Naruto a reassuring smile. "I was worried about you, you know?"

Naruto just stared at Iruka, a look of wonder on his face. Then, without any warning, he reached across the table and poked Iruka on the forehead before retracting his hand. "… You're alive!"

Before Iruka could respond, the sound of the door opening caught their attention. The two turned to see Rock Lee, Tenten, and Sasuke come through the door.

Naruto couldn't stop the wide smile from stretching across his face as he stood. "Sasuke-teme!" He then studied the other two. "Eh… you two are?"

Lee and Tenten looked confused before Iruka's mouth opened in realization. "It all makes sense now. Naruto, you're the reason our dreams started over!"

Sasuke looked up and raised an eyebrow. "That makes sense. Every time someone else starts to have dreams, ours starts over with them."

"Oh…" Naruto shrugged. "Well, I'm Naruto."

Tenten smiled slightly at him. "Tenten."

"Rock Lee." Naruto watched the boy reach up and rub a hand across where his eyebrows were. Naruto couldn't miss the look of relief that crossed his face as he did so.

He just couldn't fathom why…

Naruto was startled out of his thoughts when the door opened to reveal Kakashi holding Sakura in his arms. He looked up and gave them all a sort of half-smile. "Ah… Naruto. Hi…"

Naruto's mouth was opened in a surprised 'o' and he just stared at Kakashi in wonder. When the silence stretched out, Kakashi shifted uncomfortably. He nearly jumped when Naruto finally said something. "… You have a face!" They all looked at each other and laughed as Kakashi set the sleeping girl down on the couch. Naruto frowned and studied the pink haired girl. "… What happened to Sakura-chan?"

Sasuke sighed and looked over to the couch. "She sleeps a lot. Apparently she was the first one of us here… She's only been awake about two times since I got here earlier in the school year."

Naruto nodded and, instead of saying anything else, sat down next to the couch that Sakura was on. He got so used to her yelling at him and beating him up that seeing her that fragile was unnerving.

Iruka sat down next to Naruto on the floor and ruffled his hair. "Naruto?"

Naruto shook his head, not taking his eyes off of Sakura. "She'll be okay. Sakura-chan is strong. She might not know it, but she always has been and will be."

* * *

With a loud yawn, Naruto sat on the floor in front of the couch, staring at Sakura. Since the last time he saw her, her appearance had changed slightly. She had bruises on her face, the skin under her eye slightly swollen, and her pink hair had cut itself in her sleep (apparently that had happened a lot). It didn't help that the last thing he remembered from his dream was that snake… guy. He woke up slightly bruised and when he walked into the meeting room for the "monthly meeting," he and the others had found Sakura looking as if she had gotten badly beaten.

Reaching out and fingering her hair, he sighed. "… What really happened after that guy attacked us, Sakura-chan?" He let his finger trail over to the bruised skin beneath her eye. He then let his finger trail to her cheek and he poked it. All of a sudden, her eyebrows furrowed and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Naruto?"

He smiled widely, though it was really only out of relief. "Hey, Sakura-chan," he said in a quiet voice that she wasn't used to. "They said you might sleep through the day. It's unhealthy to sleep that much you know…"

She smiled—tired—and blinked slowly, as if trying to wake up. Yawning she sat up and stared at him, a small smile on her face. "You're looking good, Naruto…"

His smile remained on his face as if it were permanent. He then reached out and affectionately knocked a knuckle against the bruise on her cheek. "I'm going to assume that you've looked better."

Laughing quietly, the two looked up when Kakashi sat next to Sakura on the couch and Sasuke sat next to Kakashi. Sakura leaned her head on Kakashi's shoulder and closed her eyes. Kakashi studied Naruto curiously, the youth in his face still startling the boy. "How did you do that?" Kakashi asked.

"Do what?" Naruto asked while leaning back on his hands and tilting his head in question.

"Wake her up," Sasuke answered. "I mean… she never wakes up. No matter how much noise we make. And you were really quiet over here."

Naruto blinked and then shrugged. "I… uh… I just… poked her. Maybe I annoy her enough in the dream world, so she reacts to me unconsciously."

Sakura smiled, her eyes still closed. "You're smarter than me now, Naruto-kun, but I doubt that…" She yawned and looked up at Kakashi. "I want to be awake during these things, okay?" She hugged his arm like she would a teddy bear and smiled at the small talk around the room.

**-END PART VII-**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Part VIII- Year 7: Inuzuka Kiba**

**Ages: **Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto are all fifteen; Tenten and Rock Lee are seventeen; Iruka is eighteen; and Kakashi is nineteen. :D

**Author's Notes: **I hate college. End of story. Sorry it took so long to update! Now that I've got classes and stuff settled, I hope to update more often. Now for Kiba's chapter! Which I never wrote! Because it's supposed to be long and introduce Hinata and Neji as well! Dang… Anyway, I was _trying_ to show how different they are from their dreams/the manga before the dreams started. In the "real world" (I guess…) Naruto was well liked and never had to fight so hard for respect. When whatever respect his classmates had for him was lost, he became quiet and withdrawn and focused on his studies, moving away from being the obnoxiously loud kid that we all know and love. :-)

AN2: Yeah... uh... I just scanned those last 2 scenes... definitely didn't mean to hint any SakuraxNaruto. Because I'm pretty sure that that's not going to be a couple in here. ... Pretty sure anyway. :-D

**Finished: July 26, 2006  
****Edited: ****September 8, 2007  
****Published: September 8, 2007**


	9. Part VIII: Year 7, Inuzuka Kiba

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like… a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part VIII: Year 7 Inuzuka Kiba**

"Ah, son of a…" Kiba groaned and rolled over until he fell out of his bed with a loud thump.

Groaning again, he pushed himself off of the ground and dragged his feet as he made his way toward the door of the bathroom that was attached to both his and his sister's room. He flicked on the light and reluctantly looked up at the mirror. He resisted the urge to pout when he saw that his face was clear of any markings. He looked… well, he looked _normal_.

Hearing a bark, he turned his head and looked down at his dog.

"Yeah. No markings, Akamaru. Weird dream, huh?"

Akamaru tilted his head at his master and barked again.

Kiba looked down at his dog and shook his head. "What would people think if they saw me talking to my dog?"

"They would think you were a doofus. Now get out, I need to take a shower."

Kiba scowled and turned to look at his sister. "Hana, you _can't _be serious. I was in here first!"

She motioned down to her towel. "Uh, hello? I was undressed first. Besides, if I wait for you, I'm going to be late for work."

"And if I wait for _you, I'm_ going to be late for school!"

Hana rolled her eyes before she scowled at her brother. "Get out!"

Kiba made a face and picked up his dog. "Well… I see we're not wanted here…" She rolled her eyes and slammed the door in his face. Kiba scowled at the door and made a motion as if he were kicking at the door. "Love you, too, sis!" He turned away, running his hand through his hair at the same time in an attempt to tame it. He looked down at his dog and sighed. "Well… I guess I'm not getting a shower _this_ morning, huh?"

* * *

Kiba grouchily ran a hand through his hair while the other one tugged at his uniform in discomfort. It wasn't like he was new to the school or anything—he had been classmates with these people ever since he could remember. But it didn't change the fact that the uniforms sucked. And that he was late. _And_ that his teacher was a nightmare.

_Bring it on. _

Opening the door, he coughed and tried not to flush when everyone turned to look at him. He turned to the teacher and blinked when he saw an unfamiliar person standing at the front of the room. A substitute. A bumbling, meek, and probably confused substitute…

The man walked toward Kiba. "And you are?"

"Kiba. Inuzuka Kiba."

The man nodded and motioned around the room. "Free period. And I won't tell that you were late."

… A bumbling, meek, and confused substitute who was pretty cool.

Kiba nodded and looked around the room at his talking classmates. They had all stood and separated into their little groups that way instead of across the room from their usual assigned seats. Shrugging to himself, he set his sights on the first empty desk that he saw. Next to it, he saw a girl sitting there on her own, quiet. Something about her seemed familiar and he just couldn't place it, but he couldn't figure it out because she was hunched over as if looking at something in her lap.

Or maybe she was just looking _at_ her lap. _He_ couldn't tell.

He made his way to the desk and sat down. After a moment of sitting there, he couldn't stop the urge that he had to figure out that girl's identity. He turned his head and studied her quickly. She was wearing the standard uniform modestly—no skirt pulled up to make it shorter, no attempt to get past the dress code or look appealing for the guys. When he had observed her looking down at her lap before, it had turned out that she was reading a book. Now that Kiba was next to her, he still couldn't see her face because she was hiding behind a curtain of long, dark hair.

Kiba was startled when the girl suddenly looked up at him while pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, a light blush on her face. Her brown eyes bore into his and she raised an eyebrow at him. Despite the fact that the girl had long hair, her bangs long enough to be tucked behind her ears, he couldn't shake the feeling that she looked somewhat familiar.

"C…" She stopped and cleared her throat. "Can I help you?"

Kiba blinked out of his stupor and smiled at the girl. "I'm just trying to figure out why you look so familiar."

Both of her eyebrows rose into her forehead. "Really? I've been in your class since we started high school last year."

"Oh… Were you here _before_ that?"

She shook her head. "No… I transferred." She shrugged. "I'm not very… talkative. I think everyone thinks I'm a mute," she admitted.

Kiba blinked at her and then laughed. "Well, Hinata-chan—can I call you that?" At her nod, he continued. "What do you say we get to be friends?"

She smiled and nodded at him. "I'd like that."

And she didn't even ask how he knew her name.

* * *

Kiba lay back on the grass and closed his eyes. It had been months since he and Hinata had become friends. And as the months went by, his dreams just got more and more intense and his friends became more and more worried.

Even though Kiba was pretty sure he should be worrying about the intensity of his dreams, one thing, more than anything, troubled him at the moment: meeting Hyuuga Neji.

He had seen the boy around the school and had resisted the urge to pick a fight with him whenever he walked by. It was weird to be dreaming about people that he never talked to and then meeting them during the day. He never made the connection between the Hyuuga Neji in his dream and the Hyuuga Neji at his school until he realized that the school's heartthrob really was related to his friend. And apparently the two were close enough for Kiba to need the approval of the other boy.

Kiba was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard soft footsteps running toward him in the grass. He opened his eyes and smiled when Hinata flopped down next to him on the grass, her hair framing her face and her cheeks holding a rosy hue.

"Kiba-kun. Neji-nii-san is here."

When she backed away, he popped up and turned his head in the direction that she came from. There stood a boy that he had come to recognize as the overprotective Hyuuga. He was studying Kiba suspiciously as Hinata continued to stand next to him. And then he did the strangest thing.

He _smiled._

Now that Kiba thought about it, dream-Neji never smiled. Dream-Neji seemed to hold a deep hatred for Hinata and the rest of her immediate family. This Neji seemed to hold brotherly warmth for the girl, almost overprotective.

In Kiba's mind it was better this way. He had the feeling that something was going to happen soon and that meant that Neji would be there to take care of his friend. It was actually a bad feeling that he couldn't explain—it just tugged at the back of his mind every now and again and he just couldn't get rid of it.

Shaking his head, Kiba reached out for his dog. The small, white dog's pink tongue hung out of his mouth, seemingly smiling at Kiba, before barking and running at him.

Kiba smiled at Hinata and Neji before standing. "Well… Now that we've all met, let's go."

Kiba suddenly stopped walked when he noticed there was something wrong with Akamaru. "What's wrong boy?"

The dog whined in between sniffing the air in a hurried manner. The small dog then spun around and let a bark escape. Kiba couldn't help but to groan. "Akamaru? You've been barking all day…" He trailed off when he turned and saw the same van that he had seen all day.

It was the same kind of minivan that he was used to seeing the soccer moms in the area drive around in. So he never thought the van to be of any harm. But now that he was still, he saw that, like the minivan he saw earlier, there was a distinct difference in this van versus the one that even his mother owned: each and every last window on the van was _tinted_. Bending down, Kiba grasped the leash attached to Akamaru's collar and slowly let the dog loose.

"Okay, Akamaru. I know this sounds crazy but… if I'm right, then you can most definitely understand me." He ran a hand down his dog's back. "Run back home and go get someone, okay?" The dog whined again and was quieted when Kiba gave him one last pat on the head before standing. "Go, Akamaru."

Kiba didn't turn when Akamaru turned and ran in the direction of his home. Kiba groaned and ran a hand through his hair before mentally preparing himself.

"Yeah…" He mumbled. "Bring it on, bring it on…"

* * *

Hana started when she heard scratches at the door. A little freaked out, she stood and made her way to the back door. When she caught sight of Kiba's little white dog, Akamaru, scratching at the back door, she sighed in relief. When he barked and continued to scratch at the door, she frowned. That dog barely ever barked. Not if it wasn't necessary…

… Where was Kiba?

Rising from her seat and trying to stop her heart from beating out of her chest, Hana quickly made her way to the door and let the small dog in. As soon as she heard the small whining noise that came from within the dog's chest, she felt panic consume her senses.

She knew her little brother hated dogs before and she found it mighty scary when he had, out of the blue, taken a liking to Akamaru, but to see the boy without the dog by his side at that point was a scary thought to her. And the last thing she had done was kick him out of the bathroom that morning!

Taking a deep breath and trying (and failing) to convince herself that nothing was wrong, she decided to let the dog have his way with his persistent pulling on her leg and follow him.

"Okay, okay." She untied her sweatshirt from around her waist and pulled it over her head before following the dog outside. Their house was usually cold year round and, while it was hot outside, she always had her sweatshirt with her. For once, the chill that she felt wasn't the cold from the house but from a feeling, and she couldn't help but to shake.

She was lost in her thoughts following Akamaru down the street, too worried to feel foolish about following a small dog. She was so lost in her thoughts that she barely stopped when Akamaru came to a stop.

"Okay, Akamaru." Hana felt a chill run down her spine as she looked around. "No Kiba."

The dog whined and she frowned.

"No Kiba…"

* * *

The sixteen year old groaned and put a hand to his head. Without opening his eyes, he yawned and rolled out of bed, careful of the warm lump of fur that he was sure would be laying next to his bed. When his bare feet made contact with cold floor rather than the carpet of his bedroom, he was instantly alert and snapped his eyes open.

"Where the fuck am I?"

"Kiba." Kiba blinked and turned his head to see the blonde haired-hyperactive ninja that he was used to seeing in his dreams. Naruto was sitting on the loveseat next to the couch that he was on, a half-awake Sakura leaning against him. Naruto's tired blue eyes studied Kiba before he spoke up. "They must have just caught you. You're still in your street clothes."

He scowled at Naruto. "What the hell are you on about?"

A hand set itself on his shoulder. He looked up to see the familiar scar of his teacher from the Academy. He just looked… younger. "Kiba... You're in an asylum. They've been catching us all one by one because of dreams we've been having."

There was a moment of silence before Kiba looked down at his lap and then buried his face in his hands. "No way…" he groaned. "No freaking _way._" He looked up and around the room. There was all of Team 7… Rock Lee and Tenten… and his Academy teacher, Iruka. And there was one thing about them all that was bothering him:

"But… you're all as old as me."

Kakashi nodded and leaned back in his place on the chair next to the small couch that Naruto and Sakura were on. "Yeah… We don't really know what's up with that one." He lazily shifted his eyes around the room. "But… this is it." He nodded his head in Naruto and Sakura's direction. "Sakura-chan has been here for about six years. So there's no telling how long we're going to be here."

He blinked and looked down at his lap. He smiled bitterly.

"I just had to say 'bring it on'…"

**-END PART VIII-

* * *

**

**Next chapter: Part IX- Year 7: Nara Shikamaru**

**Ages:** Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, and** Kiba** are all sixteen; Tenten and Rock Lee are eighteen; Iruka is nineteen; and Kakashi is twenty. :D

**Author's Notes:** I hate, hate, HATE, this chapter. Really. Like… it was the reason I almost gave up on this story before. Love Kiba to death, but HATE this damn chapter! D Shikamaru's is mostly done because I skipped ahead and wrote it instead of this. My bad.

**A/N 2:** Massive editing needs to be done. So worry not on the crappiness that is this chapter. I was feeling guilty for not putting anything out.

**Finished: February 24, 2008  
Edited: --  
Published: February 24, 2008**


	10. Part IX: Year 7, Nara Shikamaru

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like… a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part IX: Year 7 Nara Shikamaru**

Shikamaru sat with his feet flat on the couch, and staring blankly at his sketchbook.

"Shikamaru. Get the bottom of your feet off the couch," his father scolded.

Rolling his eyes, the seventeen year old chose to, instead, sit cross-legged. Picking up his pencil and ignoring his family, he looked down at the drawing he started his in sketchbook in a puzzled manner. Over the course of a few months, he had decided to sit down and draw the people who plagued his dreams every night. It wasn't as if he were dreaming of the same thing every night. It was more like his dreams were a whole different timeline. All of the dreams were connected as if he were really living them day in and day out.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he stopped letting his hand continue on its blind path to finishing the drawing. He tilted his head and felt his eyebrows furrow in distress. The long, dark hair, the standard Konoha headband with the piercing eyes was just _so_ familiar… He had drawn Yuuhi Kurenai. He had just seen the lady in his dreams in passing and he found it _curious _how he could recall every detail about her…

Shikamaru was interrupted from his thoughts when he felt a hand being laid on his shoulder. He looked up to see his mother peeking over his shoulder, bracing a hand on his shoulder to do so. "She's a pretty lady," she said, peeking over his shoulder. "You've got some real talent there, Shika. Is she someone you know?"

He shook his head. "No… I mean… I don't think so…" He looked up at his mother. "I just… thought about her, is all."

She nodded but continued to stare at the picture. "She looks kind of familiar, actually…"

Shikamaru blinked and looked up at his mother. "Really? Where from?"

His mother tilted her head. "She looks like… Ah, yes. She looks like a student who graduated from your school two or three years ago. Yuuhi Kurenai. Smart girl, she was. She won a lot of awards and scholarships, really. She was in a lot of newspapers because of her accomplishments, as well." She pointed to Kurenai's long, thick, and curly hair. "Her hair was just shorter back then. Are you sure you haven't met her?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Positive."

"Well, all right, honey. Dinner will be ready soon."

Shikamaru nodded without a thought as he turned to a new page in his sketchbook and lazily began another drawing. A clear face came to mind while he was drawing it. It was a familiar face to him…

He paused in his drawing and tilted his head at his drawing. It was just a basic outline, but… the boy held a striking resemblance to a picture he had drawn of Sasuke. His face just completely lacked _any_ emotion whatsoever. Shikamaru frowned as he thought about the image he was trying to draw. He had never seen the boy in his dreams or in reality, so why did he feel like he knew him? The name was just on the tip of his tongue…!

The familiar music coming from the television wove itself through his mind, making him groan as he slowly came to the realization of what exactly it was that he hearing. "Mom, dad. Why do you insist on watching this stupid show, anyway?"

His mother shook her head at her son as she came into the room. "Unsolved Mysteries is interesting. If you don't want to watch it, you could always go in your room and draw."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Oh, _fine_. Just call me when it's off."

His father shrugged. "Your loss, then."

Shikamaru began to gather his things and tried to block out the voice of the man on the T.V. as the show started. He paused when a familiar name caught his interest. "_Young Haruno Sakura had been a child that her mother said had a wild imagination. The child was then thought to have dreams that distorted her view of reality. Was it a call for attention or did the child really have problems?" _Shikamaru turned toward the screen and sank into the couch, dread tickling his senses.

"_She had taken her daughter to see multiple doctors. When suggested that the little girl be committed so that they could figure out what was 'wrong' with her, her parents readily agreed. That was the last time that either adult had seen their 10-year-old daughter. When they had gone to visit their young child in June 1999, they had come back and the place was…__** empty**_"

Shikamaru couldn't even snort at how overdramatic and cheesy the show was. When a picture of a ten-year-old, dark-haired, brown-eyed little girl flashed across the screen, Shikamaru was shocked. While she didn't have the same hair or eye color that he was used to seeing, this Sakura and dream-Sakura were both undoubtedly the same people. Both had the same facial features and—dare he say it—overly large forehead. _Haruno Sakura_ was _real_. When someone came on the screen to talk about the little girl and the Haruno family—dramatized skit and all—Shikamaru, instead, took that time space out and think.

Yuuhi Kurenai was real. Haruno Sakura was real. If those two were real, there was the possibility that more people from his dreams existed. At first he thought that maybe he was just unconsciously seeing Kurenai in dreams because he _had _seen her picture in the newspaper, but the fact that Sakura andKurenai _both_ existed changed everything. And besides: he knew there was no way he was capable of making up a fantastical world where most people he came in contact with were _ninjas,_ of all things.

"Shika, honey… are you all right?"

Shikamaru blinked chanced a glance at his mother before he nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

He shifted his focus back to the television just to be shocked further and shaken—both physically and mentally. It was a completely different mystery on the show, but… there was just so much _wrong _with it… Shikamaru could feel it.

"_Now, this particular mystery that we're going to talk about next, w__e have been following for years. We bring it up, yet again, with another kidnapping. It all started in 2002 when seventeen-year-old Hatake Kakashi had gone missing. The last time anyone saw him, he was in class. There seemed to be a violent confrontation in his home when…_"

An image of Kakashi appeared on the screen. His mask was gone, but it was definitely Kakashi. He still had the silver hair and dark eyes. His right eye was dark and full of emotion while the left had a scar over it and _lacked_ emotion. It was a glass eye. Shikamaru was pulled out of his thoughts when more images came to the screen.

"_The next year, in 2003, the fourteen-year-old Uchiha Sasuke; sixteen-year-old Kino Tenten; sixteen-year-old Rock Lee; and seventeen-year-old Umino Iruka all went missing. Like Hatake Kakashi, there had been signs of violent…_"

Sasuke looked exactly as Shikamaru remembered him to be, even if slightly older. The image looked to be cut out of a family picture and he was smiling widely—something Shikamaru would have sworn would have been impossible to see. Tenten didn't have her hair in the usual buns, but when Shikamaru hurriedly flipped to the picture he drew of her, he saw that she looked exactly the same. Rock Lee still had the weirdly wide-eyes that made him stand out (though Shikamaru had to admit that, for once, that was the only weird thing about him) in his school picture, in which he was wearing a uniform. The only one he found to be shockingly different visually was Iruka. If it weren't for his expressive eyes that he found as an odd comfort as a student in the Academy, he wouldn't have recognized him without his scar. His hair was cut short and was combed neatly, he, too, having his school uniform on.

"_In 2004, just last year, this frightening trend continued when orphan Uzumaki Naruto—who was the last to see Umino—went missing, also in a violent manner."_

Shikamaru couldn't help but feel numb when one last picture filled in the sixth spot on the screen. It was the blonde-haired, blue-eyed loudmouth that he would never forget. Albeit he looked calmer, more focused, and more mature than dream-Naruto. Either way, Shikamaru felt himself become more nauseous as the show went on.

The screen cleared and a final face appeared on the screen. "_The most recent addition to the group of missing teenagers was Inuzuka Kiba a couple of months ago. Eyewitnesses said that the last time they had seen the sixteen-year-old, he was walking when…"_

Shikamaru couldn't take it anymore. When he caught sight of Kiba's large, almost doggish, grin, narrowed eyes, and short brown hair, Shikamaru abruptly stood up, his sketchbook in hand.

"Shikamaru," his dad started. "Are you alright?"

Shikamaru shook his head, but instead said, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" his mother asked, concerned

He looked down at his mother in question. "Why do you ask?"

"You look pale…"

He shook his head and abruptly made his way toward the stairs, frustration lacing his voice. "I'm fine. I told you this was a stupid show, anyway."

* * *

Shikamaru peeked outside of his window and groaned when he spotted suspicious looking van (why would they be so _obvious _about it? But then again, it wasn't like anyone in the neighborhood was paying any attention…) pass his house again. Instead of going straight to continue around the block, like it had been doing for the past half an hour, it parked in front of the house across the street.

Shaking his head, he walked away from his window and hurriedly began to rip his newest sketches off of the wall. When he had his dreams, he drew the people in them and then pinned them to his wall. The ones he had the most of were of his teammates. Ino and Chouji were by far the most detailed drawings that he had on any of the shinobi. And they were his friends. He had been proud of how accurately he had drawn them but now he knew if he kept them, more people would be caught. Just in case his team was real too, their drawings would be the first to go.

If all of the people in his dreams were getting taken away, then he thought it was safe to say that he was going to be taken somewhere along the line. Cutting his train of thought, he threw all of his sketches in the trashcan, grabbed a match and lit it. He stared at the flame, entranced for a moment before letting it drop into the trash can. If they were going to abduct him, there was no way in the world he was going to let them get to everyone else through his drawings.

No way.

* * *

"Shika, honey?"

Shikamaru turned around from staring out the window to acknowledge his mother. "Yeah, mom?"

"You seemed a bit upset earlier." She looked around with an eyebrow raised, suspicion beginning to seep into her features. "And your room is clean."

He tried to hold back a smirk. The woman was just so… so… _troublesome_. If his room was a mess—an organized mess, he liked to call it—then she was upset and when it was clean, she was suspicious.

Just troublesome.

"I'm fine, mom."

She smiled and nodded at her son. "Alright. You would tell me if something was wrong, right?"

He turned away from her and looked back out the window, eyes set on the van across the street. "Yeah. Sure."

She nodded again. "Okay, then. Well, good night, Shikamaru."

"Goodnight mom." There was a short pause before he turned around in his seat and looked at her. "Hey, mom?"

"Hm?"

"I love you, okay? I don't say it enough."

She smiled at him. "I love you, too, son."

* * *

Shikamaru groaned and rolled over in his bed. Sitting up, he stretched and cracked his eyes open slightly just to pause in the middle of his motion. Putting his arms down, he resisted the urge to scowl when he found that he was in a room not his own.

He examined the room to see if he could find anything of use to him just to find some clothes sitting on the end of the bed, perfectly folded. Feeling slightly disgruntled, he kicked at the clothes, making them fall to the floor in a heap. He peeked over the edge of the bed and blinked. Not as disorderly as he would have hoped but…

With a groan, he stood and picked the pile of clothes up off of the floor and began to undress.

"Un-freaking-believable," he muttered. "How troublesome is _that_?"

* * *

Shikamaru followed the burly man down the hallway, hands stuffed into the pockets of his pants. He reached up a hand and scratched his scalp in irritation. He felt like he hadn't had a shower in _months_, even though it had only been about two days. The place had a hospital-like feel to it that made him feel as if he were always too dirty for the cleanliness of the place.

When they stopped, he lazily turned his eyes forward to see that they stopped in front of a door. As much as he wanted to suppress it, he couldn't stop his curiosity from taking over. This was… different. When the guard opened the door, he felt a hand place itself on his back and just shove him into the room.

Tripping over his own feet, Shikamaru managed to catch himself before he fell. He turned around to glare at the door just to find that it had already closed behind him.

"Who the hell are—Nara Shikamaru?"

Running his hand through his hair, Shikamaru scanned his eyes over the group of teenagers and young adults. Every person that was mentioned on Unsolved Mysteries was sitting before him in the room that he had been unceremoniously shoved into. In response to their curiosity, he raised his hand in greeting. "Yo."

Rock Lee gave him an uneasy smile. "They got you, too, huh?"

Shikamaru just nodded. He couldn't figure out where to sit. Taking a glance around the room, he spotted a table with a pad of paper and a pencil on it, some chairs around it. Making his way across the room, he sat down and picked up the pencil, beginning to twirl it in his fingers idly. Now that he had something familiar to toy with…

"I knew who all of you were before I even got here." He twisted his mouth in thought, as if trying to decide whether he should keep talking or not. When the pencil in his hand touched down to the paper, he chose to keep quiet.

There was an unnatural silence before Naruto—Naruto!—spoke quietly. "What do you mean?"

Shikamaru paused in his doodling and studied Naruto more thoroughly. He looked… tired. Tired and introverted. He didn't look as if were ready to be the Naruto that everyone could hear from a mile off. Instead that usual spark was barely lit in his blue eyes, hidden behind the obvious concern he seemed to hold for the situation at hand.

So why not give a little hope?

"They're investigating."

At that, everyone was a little more alert. Tenten sat up straight from her place against the couch next to Lee and she set her unwavering gaze on the teen. "How do you know?"

Shikamaru began drawing again. "As stupid and ridiculous as that show is, it was on Unsolved Mysteries. They started connecting everyone when they got Kakashi and Sasuke." He glanced at Sakura who was looking at him curiously. He cleared his throat when he felt a sudden nervousness at her—and everyone else's—gaze. "Um..." He cleared his throat again. "They haven't been able to connect Sakura to it all. They just know that she went missing after her parents checked her in because of some crazy dreams."

Shikamaru shifted in his seat when he finished and continued doodling. Looking, down, he focused on that, just to pause and curse to himself. He felt someone appear over his shoulder and turned to see Kakashi standing there, peering down at his drawing. "You know, you're a good artist, Nara."

Shikamaru ripped the paper off of the pad and crinkled it into a ball. "Too good of an artist." He scowled down at the paper. "Especially of In—my teammates." He shook his head. "I'm not going to let the fact that I drew them get them all in here."

He paused when he heard Sakura clear her throat. He turned to see her shifting nervously in her seat on the couch between Naruto and Sasuke.

"I think they have a list."

Everyone else's head shot up when Sakura's soft voice broke the silence. She was looking down at her lap, her short hair hiding her features.

"What do you mean, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked quietly.

Sakura looked up, her green eyes flashing. "I hate myself for it. It's my fault you're all here." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and leaned back against the couch. "When I was ten, my parents me put here. Before that, I had different psychiatrists and I told them about my dreams. I think this doctor might have found you guys because of my dreams. But—"

"You told the crazy doctor?" Sasuke shouted. "I mean you didn't get a _vibe_ that he was crazy or anything? What is _wrong_ with you?"

"Hey, don't yell at Sakura-chan, like that, bastard!"

"Don't tell me what to do, you idiot! You're obviously as stupid here as you are as a shinobi. You can't even come up with a good comeback!"

Naruto stood up and Sasuke followed suit, the two getting into each other's face. "Say that to my face, you callous ass!" He pushed Sasuke away before he spoke again. "It seems that your dreams are mixing with this reality; you're not any different. But unlike in there, I'm not going to deal with your shit out here, best friend or not, you _traitor,_" he spat. He clenched his jaw before sneering at the boy. "You talk about changing, but _you're_ the one who's not any different." He leaned forward slightly before sneering at the boy. "Who's the idiot now?"

Sasuke jerked and moved to hit the blonde boy, but Lee jumped up and stepped between them, giving each a stern look. "You two need to chill out. Sakura's not to blame for this. She was ten and no one can be blamed for things like that when they're _that_ young and having dreams like _this_." He gave them each a shove in opposite directions. "So sit down and chill out."

The two boys gave each other one last heated glare before going back to the seats that they were in before.

Kakashi sighed and Shikamaru looked up at him. Some things never changed… "If they do have a list, they're going by who begins to have dreams. The list just makes it easier for them to keep track of us."

Kiba was leaning back into the chair that matched the couch that the former Team 7 was on and the other chair that Iruka has buried himself in. "Look, I don't care if they have a list or some drawings or are out to study us because of some damn dreams. But there is no way I'm staying here for the rest of my life."

**-END PART IX-****Next chapter: Part X- Year 8: Yamanaka Ino**

* * *

**Ages: **Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, and Kiba are all sixteen;** Shikamaru is seventeen;** Tenten and Rock Lee are eighteen; Iruka is nineteen; and Kakashi is twenty. :D

**Author's Note: **Nopers. Haven't even started Chouji's yet. So I had to move his from Part 10 to part 12. :-X Yup. So instead of Chouji, it's Ino!

**Finished: March 11, 2008  
Edited: --  
Published: March 11, 2008**


	11. Part X: Year 8, Yamanaka Ino

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like….a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part XI: Year 8**

**Yamanaka Ino**

"Oi! Ino-chan!"

After hearing the bell followed by a loud greeting, the blue-eyed blonde twisted her mouth up in annoyance, hoping her eyes didn't give away just what it was she was feeling. People have been walking in and out and then _bothering _her when they see that she was obviously busy doing something important! If these flowers didn't get done for the Kinomoto-Lee wedding, her mother would—

"Hola, chica."

She blinked and felt a sudden calm. Smiling, she began to make her way around the counter. "Temari-chan? Gaara-kun?"

The older blonde blew a bubble with the gum she was chewing and then smiled at Ino. She began to pull her hair into her usual lazy bun as Gaara brought his hand up in greeting. "Yo."

Seeing that there were two heads rather than the three she was expecting, Ino leaned back against the counter and felt her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Where's Kankuro-kun?"

She watched as Gaara rolled his eyes at the ceiling and as Temari shrugged as if she didn't care—her eyes showing that she did, in fact, care. "He's too cool for us this year. Freshman in college, you know? So he went on Spring Break with his friends." Sighing, she brushed her hands out of her face overdramatically before pausing mid-motion. She leaned toward Ino, making the younger blonde lean back in discomfort. Then she suddenly poked Ino in her forehead. "Ino-_chaaan_…" At this, Ino winced. Temari never used that sickly sweet voice unless she wanted something. "Have you been getting any sleep?"

Ino just scowled and shoved the hand away. "Temari. You're nineteen. Grow up."

Temari smirked, her dark eyes flashing. "Ah, but you're so fun to _tease_, Ino-chan. Isn't she, Gaara?"

He just grunted and leaned against the counter where Ino was arranging the flowers. A look of slight disbelief appeared on his face when he spotted the flowers that Ino was arranging. Picking a white carnation out of the vase of red roses, he raised an eyebrow at her embarrassment. "Something's wrong."

It was more of a question than a statement. With a sigh, she pulled the flower out of his hand and placed it delicately on the counter. "You guys just go up to my room. I'll meet you up there." Going to a door behind the counter, she opened it and let them go up before turning towards the back room. "Okaa-san! I'm going to take a break, okay?" Hearing her mother say something about her needing a break anyway, she turned and made her way up the stairs and across the small apartment to her room. "So… what are you guys doing here? I thought you were going to the beach…?"

Temari waved her hand in dismissal. "Well… since _today_ is usually the busy day for the flower shop, we figured that your mom loves me so much that she would let you go tomorrow."

Ino shrugged. "It's worth a shot, I guess."

"But that's not why we're up _here_," Gaara pointed out from his place at her desk. His face was straight but his darkly outlined jade eyes were sparkling with amusement. "So stop trying to change the subject, Yamanaka."

With a scowl at her childhood friend, Ino sat down on her bed next to Temari, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion. "I've been having these… these dreams for months." Then she let out a short laugh. "I'm a twelve-year-old kunoichi, obsessed with a Uchiha Sasuke. I don't really know how to explain it… but it's weird, because you guys are there too. I'm from the hidden village of the leaf and you're…"

"… from the hidden village of the sand," Temari whispered, her eyes, shades darker than her brother's, unusually wide.

Gaara's eyes shifted between the two girls. "And with a kid named Naruto?"

The three stared at each other in surprise before Ino spoke. "How long have you been having them?"

Gaara scratched at where the 'love' tattoo would have been on his forehead. "Couple of months, I guess." Then he scowled. "Why do I get to be the kid with the twisted past and bloodlust?"

Ino shot him a look. "Well, you already have the bloodlust thing down."

He rolled his eyes at her and sat down at her desk chair. "Whatever. How 'bout you? When'd you start having them?"

"Uhm… Around New Years, I guess. I mean…" Heaving a deep sigh, she lay back on her bed. "It's not like they're _bad_ dreams. … Okay, wait. They've been getting bad, but not awful. I mean… ARGH!"

"You mean, when you dream, it seems so real that it's hard to tell whether it's real or not?" Temari spoke up.

"Exactly!" Ino exclaimed happily, popping back into a sitting position.

"Then it's settled," Temari said with a smirk, holding herself up on the mattress by her elbows.

Gaara shot his sister a slightly confused look. "… what is?"

"We're going to the beach! Even if we _have_ to kidnap you. Besides, you need to get away from this city and your mom loves me too much to hate me."

Ino snorted. "You're probably right. But what does that have to do with the dreams?"

"Who cares? The whole point is to relax and hopefully not think about them. But it _does_ mean…" she trailed off dramatically and Ino could see just how excited her friend was getting. "We're going _shopping_!" Temari exclaimed.

With a groan, Gaara leaned back further into the chair. "Right _now_?" At his sister's nod, he groaned again. "Are you _serious_?"

Ino looked down at her watch and motioned for them to follow her back down to the flower shop. Six PM. "Sorry, Temari. How about at, like, seven? That's when I'm free. I've got to finish arranging these flowers. There's some wedding or something tomorrow."

With a nod, Temari dragged poor Gaara out the door. "No problem, girly! See you in an hour!"

Shaking her head, Ino picked up the carnation that Gaara had picked out of the roses and set it and the roses aside with a smile. Yawning, she began to put together another vase of the red flowers.

Ino went on doing the same thing for the next few minutes, quickly growing bored. She paused and frowned down at the flowers in the bouquet she had just done. She frowned when she realized the flowers she had just arranged weren't roses at all. It was a boquet of pink begonias. She tilted her head in thought as she pulled those flowers out of the vase, frustration starting to nag at the back of her head. There was a heavy feeling hanging over her head…

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard the bell from the door chime for the second time that night. Ino found herself trying to keep the frown on her face from turning into a scowl. Finding herself unable to, she didn't even bother to look up.

"We're closed." Quietly counting to five, her scowl only deepened when she didn't hear the bell over the door ring again to show the visitor's departure. "Hello, are you deaf?" She snapped. She looked up sharply, a glare set on her face. "I said…!"

Ino trailed off and blinked in a mix between shock and confusion when she saw two strangers with ski masks over their faces. She was a second too late in hearing one sneak up behind her, one second too late in her attempt to move out of the way. Cursing her luck, she stomped on the person's instep and jumped forward as they cursed quietly. Jerking to her right, she reached forward and smacked the panic button on the wall that her parents recently had installed in light of the local kidnappings.

Before she could make another move, she felt a prick in her neck. Pausing, she put her hand to her neck to feel a dart-like shape sticking out of it. She squinted at the other figure that she completely forgot about and then pulled the dart out of her neck. She looked down at the dart, up at assailant 2 and back down at the dart again, her vision blurring steadily.

'… shot! He **shot** me!'

Feeling a rush of adrenaline, she managed to lift her arm, which was slowly going limp, and slam the dart into Assailant 1's arm. Without a thought to it, Assailant 1 yanked the dart out of their arm and moved out of hitting range. The other came up behind Ino and put her in a chokehold with one arm, the other hand tightly clutching a hand to her mouth. Panicking, she managed to lift her numb arms again and wrap her hands around the arm putting her in a chokehold.

Letting out a scream, Ino felt tears form in her eyes as she began to lose the feeling in her legs. Her eyelids began to flutter as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Before she knew it, eyes rolled to the back of her head and all she saw was darkness.

And it suddenly hit her why begonias had given her nagging sense of dread. Beware. They meant beware.

****

-END PART XI-

* * *

**Next chapter: Interlude: Uchiha Itachi**

**After that: Part XII: Shukaku Temari and Gaara**

**Ages: **Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba**, Ino and Gaara** are all seventeen; Shikamaru **and Kankuro** are eighteen; Tenten, Rock Lee**, and Temari** are nineteen; Iruka is twenty; and Kakashi is twenty-one. :D

**Author's notes:** Yeah. It's short, I know, but I wanted it to be that way. Short, I mean. That last scene, I kind of got the idea for what she felt like being drugged from when I was under anesthesia. That crap sucks because you never (or at least, I don't ever) remember when the hell you fell asleep. Your eyes roll and you're gone. :D Right then. Please review!!

**AN2: **I am unreasonably angry right now. Because I go to check to be sure the format is right, just to find out that this site has taken out all of my little scene separater things! They took away the dashes, I can't put ellipses, and I pretty much can't do anything else. Thanks , but some things should just be left alone. (Still angry). So sorry if your story-reading experience was made even worse because of it.

**Finished: January 31, 2006**  
**Edited: March 22, 2008  
****Pusblished: March 22, 2008**


	12. Interlude: Uchiha Itachi short

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like….a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

Important A.N at bottom. There WILL be another chapter posted soon (sometime between an hour from now and early tomorrow).

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Interlude: Year 8**

**Uchiha Itachi**

The twenty-one year old yawned before leaning back in his chair.

"Yo, you alright kid?"

Itachi shifted his eyes in the direction of the man who spoke. Hoshigaki Kisame. The man was rather large in stature and towered over Itachi and his desk at a startling 190.5 cm. He had imagined that if the man wasn't shark-like, like in his dreams, that he would be rather ugly. But Kisame looked just as normal as the next guy, just… _huge._ He was a 29 year old giant who was content with where his career was. Itachi was grateful when Kisami took him under his wing when he started working as an officer at the age of 20, fresh out of college.

He felt responsible for those he cared about. Because of his responsibility, he became suspicious of everyone. He needed to find his best friend and his brother; he needed to find Kakashi and Sasuke. They were Itachi's sole reason for striving to become an officer, a detective. He needed to be stronger to find those He wasn't going to be the same monster that he was in his dreams. He wasn't going to sit back and let the mystery of their disappearance remain unsolved.

Uchiha Itachi wasn't going to let the first thing Sasuke thought of when he thought of his older brother be a murderer.

Itachi started having the dreams a little less than a year after Sasuke's disappearance. And because of that, he had the benefit of gaining his dream-self's rather stoic appearance. When Itachi looked at Kisame, he could tell that the man wasn't having the dreams. Or at least not yet.

But the older man had instantly recognized Itachi. Or at least that was what he had told him when he started working with him.

Itachi was an intelligent man. Even though he had emotional attachments to the case, they had no choice but to let him on. He was a relative to Sasuke and a friend to Kakashi—one of the first people to go missing. And because of his closeness to them, they told him things. The day he found out that his little brother was having dreams, he did the thing that any caring, obnoxious older brother would do: he looked for any sort of writing that he could He had gone into Sasuke's room the day he was kidnapped and had went in to read the boy's diary when he found out Sasuke was having the dreams.

Itachi was immensely proud of his brother—he was just as intelligent as Itachi thought he would be. He wrote down every detail of his dreams, not leaving a single thing out. He was suspicious of almost everyone and everything and rightfully so.

And now Itachi only felt that he could trust Kisame with the full details of the case for he, too, was having the dreams—just like his brother.

"Itachi?"

Itachi blinked slowly and then focused his gaze back on Kisame. "Yes?"

Kisame smiled, a few of his teeth more unnaturally jagged than the others. "We've got a live one."

Itachi raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair. "A 'live' one?"

"On the case." Kisame closed the door behind him and sat in the chair in front of Itachi's desk. "Those kids you were talking about having dreams about? Those 12 year olds?" At Itachi's nod, Kisame continued. "We just got a call in from a flower shop. It was one of those kids on a list of names you gave me. A Yamanaka Ino."

Itachi sat straight and couldn't keep the hope from showing on his face. "Does she have any connections with anyone else."

Kisami looked back down at his sheet of paper, trying to read through the chicken-scratch that was known as his handwriting. "Ah, right. A Shukaku Temari and Gaara were last seen with her. The two are siblings; old childhood friends, according to her parents."

Itachi furrowed his eyebrows in thought… "Shukaku… Gaara…" His face lit up. "Come on Kisami. We need to catch up with those two before something happens to them."

Kisami smiled a toothy grin before nodding to his partner. "Got it, kid."

* * *

**-END INTERLUDE-**

**Next Chapter: Part XI: Year 8- Temari and Gaara**

Author's Notes: So here's the interlude I intended to post before I went on my super-long hiatus. My explanation: A friend of mine had this… situation where she really did almost end up going to get help at some mental hospital and I was there when this event happened and…. It took me a few months to get over it. I couldn't even look at this particular story because the mental hospital thing made me think of it and… yeah. So I apologize. I hope to update every week after this. Another chapter should be out in a few hours/tomorrow. And it should be longer. A whole lot longer.

**Finished: August 29, 2008  
****Edited: Pending  
Published: August 29, 2008  
**


	13. Part XI: Year 8, Temari and Gaara

Summary: What if the Naruto gang woke up in an insane asylum located just outside of Tokyo? What would happen if they all were there because they dreamed of places and things that didn't exist?

All disclaimers apply. Please note that all of the scenes that are in italics are like….a novel version of the manga. Just… from someone else's POV.

_Italics_- dreams

* * *

**Part XII: Year 8**

**Gaara and Temari**

"Come _on_, Gaara! We're late!" Temari shouted up the stairs.

Gaara came from the kitchen, chewing on a candy bar. "What are you yelling about?" When she turned and looked at him in confusion, he motioned toward the kitchen. "I was in the kitchen. I'm a growing boy."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's _go_."

He raised an eyebrow and looked at the grandfather clock that their mother put in the foyer. "Right… You _do_ realize that we're only five minutes late?"

Temari put an uncharacteristic pout on her face and crossed her arms across her chest before she looked away from her brother. He couldn't help but to be amused by her attempt to look pitiful. "But Gaara… you _know_ Ino needs a break. The sooner we can get her out, the better. Besides, if mom finds out I went shopping again, she'll kill me. I don't want to be here when she gets back!"

He smirked at her and slowly made his way over to the couch in their living room. "And that's supposed to convince me to hurry… how?" He sat down and leaned back. "I'm sure Ino-chan will understand."

Temari got a mischievous look on her face. "Well, fine then. Stay home. Mom went to go pick up granddad anyway; maybe he'll tell you a story or a million." With that said, she grabbed her purse and walked out of the house. "Oh, he'll be out here in no time…"

When she was halfway down the street, a disheveled Gaara fell into step next to her. "Alright, I'm here…"

Looking up at her little brother, she smirked. When Gaara fell into step next to her, she let out a satisfied smirk. "Change of heart, little bro?"

"Hn…"

She snorted. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

**:·:.:·:**

When the two finally made it to the Yamanaka's flower shop/apartment, Temari was still poking fun at her brother. When they turned to look at the place, they stopped at the sight before them. In front of the humble flower shop was police cars and police tape. Not really thinking about much of anything except finding out what happened, Temari took off towards the door. Gaara watched his sister's retreating back and thought quickly on what to do.

'Fuck this. Ino's my friend…' he thought. Dropping his cold front, he took off after his sister.

"You two can't come through."

"Why the hell not?!" Temari shouted. "Did something happen to them? Are they okay?"

Gaara squeezed behind his sister, observing the cops that were in the area. He tilted his head when he caught sight of a man in a suit rather than the police suits that the rest of the officers were wearing. Having every intention of moving toward that man, he paused when the man turned around. With the long black hair and the dark eyes that were identical to Uchiha Sasuke's, he would have thought that the man _was_ Sasuke if it wasn't for the blank expression on his face and the lines under his eyes. But after another glance, he could tell that it was Uchiha Itachi.

Cursing quietly to himself, he wrapped a hand around Temari's arm. "Sorry officer. We'll just call later and wait back there…" He pointed in some direction and bowed hastily before pulling his sister away.

"Gaara, what the hell?"

"Uchiha Itachi is here." He motioned back toward the front of the crowd and she turned to look.

She recognized the man immediately and saw that he had caught sight of them. "Gaara, duck your head. I think he sees us!"

Gaara crouched lower and dragged her through the crowd that was standing outside of the small shop in worry. The Yamanaka's were a well liked family in the neighborhood and, for once, Gaara was happy that the family's popularity caused a crowd. Looking around, they slipped into an alley next to the shop and stopped when they got to the small greenhouse. Letting go of his sister's hand, he reached up and slid his hand along the top of the door until he felt his hand come in contact with a key.

"Hey, how'd you know that was there?"

Shooting her an uneasy look, he stuck the key into the lock. "Ah… Ino had a boyfriend last year." Unlocking and opening the door, he finally opened the door. "Was going to tell you, but didn't want you to worry in your first year in college. So I just looked after her." After a short moment's pause, he said one more thing before walking through the door. "Was the stalker type."

Temari took a deep breath and nodded, deciding that it wasns't an appropriate time to have a hissy fit over something like the ex-boyfriend no one told her about. Her best friend was missing—she had other things to worry about.

…And when the _hell_ did _Gaara_ get so nice?

"Come on. Let's go find Ino's parents."

Walking through the door that would take them out of the greenhouse and into the back room, they stopped when they saw Ino's mother sitting at the desk. Her face was in her hands, and her husband was sitting next to her in an attempt at comforting her.

"Yamanaka-sama, what's going on?"

At the sound of Gaara's voice, the two adults jumped before looking up at the two teens. Giving his wife a pat on the back, Ino's father stood and motioned for the two teens to follow him into the shop. When Gaara opened his mouth to repeat his question, Mr. Yamanaka held up his hand.

"…Ino's missing."

Temari couldn't help but to be suddenly confused. "_Missing_? We just _saw_ her! Like… an hour ago!" Temari burst out.

Gaara sat in silence, eyebrows furrowed, before speaking. "I thought… missing people couldn't be reported for twenty-four hours…?"

Mr. Yamanaka pointed to a button on the wall behind the counter. "She hit the panic button."

"Yamanaka-san, don't you have security cameras here?" Temari asked.

Before the man could respond any further than a nod, a voice interrupted them. "Yamanaka-san."

Gaara and Temari jumped and turned around to see Uchiha Itachi standing behind him. Gaara narrowed his eyes at the man and Temari laid a calming hand on her brother's arm. "Gaara, relax. He might be different here. You are, too." She whispered.

"Ah… Detective Uchiha."

Itachi bowed slightly to the older man. His eyes flickered over to the two teenagers standing in the room before he spoke. "You're the two friends who were here before Ino-san was abducted, correct?"

Seeing that Gaara wasn't going to respond, Temari nodded. She licked her suddenly dry lips before speaking. "Do you have any idea what happened to Ino-chan?"

Itachi shook his head slightly. "I was actually wondering, Yamanaka-san, if my partner and I could have another look at your security tapes."

Gaara couldn't help but notice that it didn't come out as a question.

Ino's father blinked, surprised. "Oh, well… Yes. As long as you find my daughter." Gaara looked over at his friend's father and couldn't help but to feel saddened by how he suddenly looked so… worn and tired. "I want her back here safe and sound."

Itachi nodded. "Of course, Yamanaka-san."

Temari shared a look with Gaara before clearing her throat slightly and looking at Itachi. "Do you think that we could…" Temari paused and swallowed nervously before she tried again. "Do you think we could watch it?"

Without any hesitation, the detective nodded. Gaara felt his eyebrow rise on its own accord. There had to be some sort of… protocol or something that the detective wasn't following. Feeling his shoulders tense up, Gaara moved to follow his sister to watch the video when Ino's dad interrupted.

"Gaara-san."

Pausing, Gaara turned to look at the man. "Sir?"

"They might want to take the video after this…"

Gaara nodded in understanding and attempted a small smile. "We'll… we'll tell you about it when you're ready for it."

The older man smiled sadly and nodded. "Thank you."

**:·:.:·:**

When Gaara entered the room, he narrowed his eyes at the abnormally tall man that was standing with Itachi.

"Temari-san, Gaara-san. This is my partner, Hoshigaki Kisami." The two siblings squirmed in their place as Itachi studied them intently. "And judging from your reactions to the both of us, you know who we are." He motioned for them to have a seat. When they didn't move, he sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Look, I'm not the same Uchiha Itachi." When Temari backed up a step, he began to speak fast. "I know this sounds crazy, but just listen.

"Judging from your reactions, you're having these dreams. My brother had them. I have them. And you're having them. Unsolved Mysteries, they talk of a series of kidnappings. Haruno Sakura, TenTen, Rock Lee, Umino Iruka, Uzumaki Naruto… my brother, Uchiha Sasuke… There's even more and I have had my dreams about them too." He shook his head. "I think this is what is tying all of the kidnappings together. There is something so much bigger happening right now. I need to know if Ino had them."

"It's none—"

"Yeah, she did." Temari interrupted her brother.

"_Temari," _Gaara snapped.

She shot a glare at her brother. "_Gaara."_ She mimicked. "Look, you're different. I watched Unsolved Mysteries. Naruto was happy. Kakashi was young… And I know you remember Sakura-chan. Her hair wasn't even pink!"

"It actually turned pink when she disappeared." Kisame spoke up. When everyone turned to look at him, he smiled sheepishly. "Uh… yeah."

"When she disappeared…" Itachi muttered to himself.

Gaara frowned. "But I thought she was with that psychiatrist or something…?" He shrugged. "When I first watched the show, I always wonder why they didn't just say that she was kidnapped."

Itachi looked like a lightbulb went off in his head. "Of course!" He looked so happy that it kind of freaked Temari out. "Haruno Sakura! If they really are connected, it will start with her!" Rising out of his seat quickly, Itachi looked at the siblings. "Do you mind if we get your statements about seeing Ino before and about her dreams?" When they just began to nod, he turned to Kisame. "Kisame, I need you to watch those videos again. _All_ of them. Watch from every angle you can and see if these people are wearing any logos. We have to go back and talk to everyone's parents that we can find." Before he left the room, he shot the siblings a smile. "You two stay safe, alright? If they already knew about Ino, they might know about you. We'll station some officers outside of your home…"

Kisame nodded in acknowledgement to his partner. "I've got it Itachi. I'll take 'em home, alright?" He gave Itachi a warm smile. "You take care of yourself. Don't let people find out 'bout you too, kid."

Itachi nodded and they all watched as his face suddenly changed back to being blank before he left the room.

There was a moment of silence before Temari spoke. "So… Hoshigaki-san. Do you have these dreams, too?"

He shook his head. "No… But after meeting you kids, I believe Itachi even more." He leaned forward and put a tape into the player before he pushed play. "And even if I didn't believe him, after seeing this, I just want to find them all even more."

Gaara tuned Kisame out and studied the screen with curiosity. Ino was at the counter and arranging flowers, still looking as tired as when he and Temari went to talk to her. His eyes subconsciously narrowed when two figures entered the store, their faces covered with ski-masks. They each had the build of men who went to the gym often and he couldn't help but to wonder why that much man-power was needed to get to Ino. One of the men had somehow managed to get behind her and he couldn't help but to let a smirk slip out when she lashed out and attacked him.

Toward the end of that scuffle, he watched, wide-eyed as one pointed a gun at her. Whatever he shot her with didn't seem to be fatal when it hit her in the neck because Ino just kept fighting. A sad smile appeared on his face as he watched her faint and be carried out of the room. Yamanaka Ino, his childhood friend, was abducted and taken out of the shop in less than two minutes.

Temari shared a look with Gaara, her eyes looking watery and… angry. "Ino-chan's a fighter, isn't she?"

He nodded as Ino's father walked out of the room. "… Do you think she's…?"

"No. Like I said, Ino's a fighter. Besides why go through all of that trouble just to kill the target and take them with them?"

The three sat in an uncomfortable silence before Kisami shifted in his seat. "Alright. How about I get those statements from you two and then I walk you home?"

**:·:.:·:**

After Kisami had walked them home and explained the situation to their mother, the two had managed to sneak out of the house to get away from their grandfather. Temari left a note in her room for her mother, just in case Itachi was right and something _did _happen and then they went off to the park.

They had been walking for a few minutes before Temari spoke. "You know, Gaara… I'm not afraid of you. You know that I love you, right?"

Gaara sent her a look that clearly shouted that he thought she lost her mind somewhere. "… You have a point in asking this," he pointed out.

Gaara didn't like asking questions when it came to his siblings.

Temari stopped in the streetlight of the park and pulled her brother to face her. "Look, Gaara…You've just seemed worried that I'd be scared of you because of those dreams or something."

He stared at her and sent a small, strained smile in her direction before sitting on a bench. She followed suit and they both watched the swings sway slightly in the wind.

"Gaara?"

"Hn…?"

"… Thanks for taking care of Ino when I couldn't."

He looked at his sister with slightly wide eyes before grunted again. Looking back down at the ground, he nudged a rock with his foot and smiled softly to himself. His smile suddenly shifted to a frown when they both picked up the sound of a car parking in the parking lot behind them. Narrowing her eyes, Temari chanced a glance behind them and her eyes widened.

"Temari. What is it?"

She latched a hand onto his harm and began to make a move to stand up."We've got to get out of here. We've got to… they…!"

Confused at his sister's reaction, he turned around and saw people coming over to them, dressed like the people who kidnapped Ino. Snarling, he shook Temari's hand off his arm and lauched himself toward the playground to get to the parking lot. Once he reached one of the two men on the sand, he sent a swift, hard punch into the man's face. Hearing Temari shout out, he turned around to see her in a chokehold, a cloth being held to her face.

Eyes widening as she began to fall limp, he charged toward them as the man dragged her limp body back to the van. Before Gaara could get very far, he was grabbed by the waist and tackled into sand of the playground. With a loud grunt, he managed to grab a bunch of sand into one of his fists and let it fly into the man's face. Standing, he sent a kick to the man's side and turned to run after his sister again before he was once again tackled to the ground. The man on top of him pinned him on his back and had him in a chokehold to keep him still, fingers on pressure points.

Eyes widening, he felt… _something_ happening to him. He watched, in mild fascination, as sand slid between himself and his attacker and launched the black clad man sailing through the air. Before he could even figure out what was going on, the sand retreated back into the sandbox as if it hadn't even moved to being with. He stood in a daze and watched the man slam into a tree. When he hit the ground, he didn't move.

Gaara shook his head in an attempt to clear it and stop his sudden dizzy spell. As soon as he managed to stand straight, he fell back onto the sand on his backside. He watched through heavy lids as the van that had his sister began to drive away. Another black figure stopped in front of him and crouched down to his level. Glaring at the man, Gaara began to attempt to get up and move away when something hit him on his neck, then all he saw was darkness.

**:·:.:·:**

Temari stood from the white bed and scowled when she realized what exactly had happened. It wasn't like her to be so… so _weak_. She was the older one. She was supposed to take care of her little brother. If only she tried harder at hand-to-hand combat… if only she had realized that those men were there… If only…

"Arg! If only, if only, IF ONLY." Walking up to the closed door, she slammed a fist against it. "Where the hell is my brother, you assholes?! If he's hurt in any way, so help me, you better get your ass running!" When she got no response, she scowled. "I'll… I'll… I don't know yet, but I'll do _something_!"

When she was once again met with silence, she scowled and kicked the door just to curse as pain slammed into her toes. Pouting, she limped over to the bed and wrung her hands quietly in worry, exhaustion and anger clouding her senses.

**:·:.:·:**

His face blank, Gaara sat on his bed, arms and legs crossed while he glared at the closed door. When it opened slowly, he didn't even bother to move a muscle. It wouldn't do him any good to leave when his sister was still there. People who looked suspiciously like doctors crept their way into the room and seemed nervous around the glaring boy. Seeing that they weren't going to say anything first, Gaara refrained from rolling his tired jade eyes and sighed before deciding to speak.

"What's wrong with me?" He demanded quietly.

The male doctor seemed to be highly amused. "Ah… It seems that the display of sand that you had done back at the playground had taken its toll on you. Tell me, does this happen often?"

This time, Gaara did roll his eyes. "Do you think if it 'happened often,' I'd be asking you what the hell happened?" Glaring even harder, he watched in mild satisfaction as the man stepped back from the force of the glare. "Now where the hell is my sister? And Ino? Where'd you put them?"

The female doctor looked intrigued. "You know Yamanaka-san?"

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Gaara just chose to stay silent.

The doctor sighed. "Very well, then. Follow me."

**:·:.:·:**

Temari sighed for the umpteenth time since she had been thrown into a different room. This room had comfortable couches and chairs and tables all around. She had chosen to keep her own clothes on, rather than change into the clothes that they had provided for her on the bed.

"Temari?"

From her place on one of the chairs, the blonde looked up and her dulled eyes lightened up slightly when she caught sight of her blonde-haired, blue-eyed friend. "Ino-chan!" Temari stood from her seat and launched herself at the younger girl to give her a hug. "Have you seen Gaara? They took me and then I don't know what happened to him!"

Ino shook her head. "I know just about as much as you do about what's happening." She pulled her over to the couch that she was originally sitting on. "Where's Gaara-kun?"

Temari looked away before looking Ino in the eye. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

"I'm right here."

Temari turned around to find her brother standing right behind her. Before she could react, he uncharacteristically reached out and pulled them both into a hug. "Don't you two ever do that to me again, alright?" he mumbled.

Ino smiled and pulled back, mock punching him in the arm. "You big softy." Wiping her tears from her eyes, Ino smiled. "As bad as it sounds, I'm glad you guys are here," she laughed out, still wiping her eyes.

The trio went to sit on a couch and talked quietly. Then it seemed as if all at once, everyone was in the room. Temari frowned and shared a look with Gaara once everyone was settled. "Itachi-san was right…"

Sasuke jumped up suddenly, shocking everyone out of being quiet. "Itachi… my brother?!"

"You mean the psycho-Uchiha?" Rock Lee said. When he got a glare, he held up his hands. "Just asking…"

Ignoring him, Gaara studied Sasuke—seeing that younger Uchiha was more emotional than the once in his dreams—before replying. "The detectives knew that most of our cases were tied to each other. Except for Sakura-san." He nodded in Sakura's direction.

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, they had everyone before me on Unsolved Mysteries the night I was taken."

Ino nodded. "Yeah. Shikamaru, you're on it now, too."

Naruto shook his head. "Wait, wait… What exactly does Itachi _know_?"

Gaara leaned back into the couch between Temari and Ino, arms crossed. "Everything, I think. He's the detective that's on the case." He nodded toward Sasuke. "I gathered he _really_ didn't like the fact that they took his little brother. And they just realized that Sakura-san might be connected."

Temari nodded. "Yeah. I don't think he was even in charge of Sakura's case."

There was a moment of silence before Kakashi spoke up from his seat on the floor in front of the couch Naruto and Sakura were on. "If Itachi is in charge of it…" He shook his head. "He's a genius. If he can't do it, I don't think anyone would be able to."

* * *

**-END PART XI-**

**Next Chapter: Part XII: Year 8- Hyuuga Hinata**

**Author's Note: **Yay! I kinda like my Itachi, man. But yeah! I have a reason, I promise. So yeah. I'm like… a day and a half late because I took a break from life. Lol. Um…. Expect the next chapter in the next week or two since I haven't even started it yet.

**Author's Note 2: **Please let me know if there is anything repeated. I uploaded this and the summary line was repreated so... yeah. I'll double check tomorrow, but it's 1:36 in the morning.

**Finished: September 1, 2008 (1:32 am)****  
Edited: Pending  
Published: September 1, 2008 (Labor Day!)  
**


End file.
